


The Return of Mr. Tophat

by AstralArcher12



Series: The Ringleader's Daughter [3]
Category: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstralArcher12/pseuds/AstralArcher12
Summary: When a new villain begins to haunt Rachel's dreams, she and her friends soon learn that the story of Mr. Tophat has yet to be completed.
Relationships: Rachel Carpenter & Mr. Tophat
Series: The Ringleader's Daughter [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540294
Kudos: 6





	1. Encore

**Author's Note:**

> The story of Rachel and her father, Mr. Tophat continues! As this is part of a series, prior reading of the previous two stories is needed to fully understand this story.

Rachel felt a strong sense of Deja vu as she found herself running once more down the familiar halls of an abandoned building. Despite her gasping for breath and her body screaming at her for rest, she urged herself to continue to run as a man laughed from somewhere behind her.  
She followed the same familiar path down the stairwell and into the large room with towering pillars until she found herself standing in the same spot as she once before. Unlike her dream from before, there was no girl asking Rachel for help or a tiny swing ride toy on a desk. Instead, it skipped right to the organ playing the haunting carnival music and her standing in front of a brightly lit stage. She walked a familiar figure began to walk across the catwalk towards her. His face hidden by the shadow of the top hat seated upon his head. Her heart jumped with every step he took and every time his golden tipped cane hit the ground. 

Where once she felt nothing but fear and need to run at the sight of him, she now felt the glimmer of hope and her mind screaming safety as he drew need. But as he took one final step towards her, he suddenly burst into a mass of scorpions. She could only watch in horror as the scorpions fell and ran away into the darkness, leaving behind only his top hat in his place. She wanted to scream and cry for him to come back but knew it was too late. Knowing she was no longer safe, she turned to run somewhere else. As she moved, she turned to stand face to face with a horrifying man with a melted face who was reaching out to grab her.

Rachel jerked up in her bed gasping for her breath as she was drawn out of her nightmare. It took her moment to remember her surroundings. She was in her bed and it was the middle of the night. Looking around, she searched her room for any possible dangers that may have followed her out of her nightmare. Her searching drew to a stop as her eyes fell upon the top hat that has been hanging up on her wall since she came home from that unforgettable night. A sense of warmth and longing fell over her as she looked at the hat, thinking of its former owner. Despite wishing things were different, she knew there was no changing the past. With this knowledge, Rachel returned to her sleep. For the rest of the night, she slept soundly, her monsters choosing to leave her be for now.  
When morning came, it was as though nothing had happened. Rachel felt as rested as she could be and was content with beginning her day. She went through her usual routine of eating breakfast and getting dressed before calling out a goodbye to her mother as she stepped out of the door to met with Gavin to make their daily walk to school.

It has been a few weeks since she defeated Mr. Tophat. Everything has gone back to normal. Rachel and her friends have all been enjoying life. The night after the carnival, she was officially inducted into the Midnight Society and soon after Adam joined their ranks as well. He gave a surprisingly good story about an invisible werewolf haunting a suburban neighborhood, even Akiko impressed. Outside of the group, the friends have begun hanging out as well. Akiko lifted her policy and has employed the others with helping out with her movies. Graham has been making music for the soundtracks and running them by Louise to receive her approval and Gavin joined in as one of her actors. Rachel filled in the role of costume artist and poster maker, a role she's been thoroughly enjoying. Even Adam has helped out by letting Akiko use his dog, Jefferson, as the dog form of her monster in her werewolf movie. All in all, life has been great. 

As Rachel and Gavin walked, they began their new routine of questions and answers.

"So, sleep well last night?" Gavin asked as he enjoyed the cool fall air. Rachel began to open her mouth to give the automatic "good, you?" but paused as the memory of last night's nightmare returned to the front of her mind. She looked out over the graveyard they were pasting before finally deciding on her answer.

"For the most part," she answered. Seeing a concerned look appear on his face, she asked: "Do you remember the nightmare I told you about, the one I had when Mr. Tophat was trying to scare me and make me remember?" 

"The one with you running through some old building and him popping up right in front of you when you turned?" he said with furrowed brows as he tried to remember it. At her nodding, he gave a slight smile in delight over his correct answer. "What about it?"

"I had the same dream last night. Well, almost the same dream. I was running again, but it was from someone different. And Annie didn't show up begging for my help. The weirdest part was that when the organ began to play and Mr. Tophat appeared on the stage, I was actually happy to see him," she explained. Gavin frowned and thought to himself for a moment before replying.

"Well, maybe you were happy because you know who he is now and that he doesn't want to hurt you," he said. Rachel nodded in agreement before continuing her story.

"Maybe, but that's not the only thing that happened. He began to walk towards like the other dream, but before he could reach me, he turned into a bunch of scorpions, just like he did when I destroyed his cane. Then, the most horrifying part was when I turned to run away, there was this man reach out, trying to grab me," she shivered as she remembered the way the man had looked. "His face was all weird like someone had taken a face made out of clay and smashed it all up."

"And then you woke up?"

"Yeah, then I woke up. What do you think it means?" Rachel looked over at Gavin with a worried look on her face. 

"I don't know. If last time, it was because Mr. Tophat was after you, who's after you now? Do you think they have any relation to him?" Gavin wondered. Seeing that he wasn't helping at all, he quickly added "Let's not worry about it. Who knows, maybe your mind was just reusing material and added some new stuff for the fun of it." 

"Maybe," Rachel agreed. Done with the conversation, she finally looked up and saw they had arrived at the school. Letting out a sign, she looked over at Gavin "Let's forget about it for now. If anything else happens, we can talk it over with the others, agreed." After receiving a nod from her friend, she made her way towards the front doors of the building. As they reached the doors, Rachel felt the sudden sense of something run up her spine. Whipping her head around, she looked over her shoulder and froze as she saw an odd sight. All the way across the school grounds, another girl had frozen as she was walking along the sidewalk and was looking in her direction. Despite her eyes being hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, she could tell that the girl was staring right at her and that she was just as unnerved by this fact as she was. Hesitantly, Rachel raised her hand and waved to her. Slowly, the girl waved back and then promptly turned back towards the direction she was headed and continued her walk. Rachel continued to watch her until she disappeared out of sight. Once she was gone, she turned back to the doors and saw Gavin still standing there beside her.

"What was that about?" he asked. Rachel simply shook her head.

"I have no idea. Let's just get inside before the bell rings," she replied. Together, they headed inside and hurried towards their respective lockers, both hoping the rest of the day will be more normal than its been so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I plan to post the next chapter next week, so stay tuned until then.  
> If you enjoyed this chapter, perhaps consider leaving a kudos or comment. It's your love and appreciation that keeps me motivate to write my stories.


	2. Sweet Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an unsettling incident at the park, Rachel's troubles begin to worsen after her nightmares continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update! I hope everyone enjoyed the previous chapter! Time for our story to continue!

"What about zombies?" Adam suggested, raising his arms up to mimic the creature he spoke of. Akiko shook her head with a frown.

"No, I did them already, just before the werewolf one. I need something new to do," she replied. Adam slowly lowered his arm with a crestfallen expression. Rachel got him a soft smile and patted his arm for his efforts.

"What about shapeshifting aliens?" Graham suggested with a smile. Akiko shot him a glare, wiping the smile off his face.

"What have I said about aliens and horror movies?" she replied. The group of friends all resumed their brainstorming as they tried to think of new ideas for Akiko's horror films. Its been about an hour since school finished and they sat down at one of the empty benches at the town's park, but so far, none of them could think up a single idea of what she could do. Suddenly, Louise sat up straight with a smile.

"What about shapeshifting vampires!" she excitedly asked. Akiko tilted her head in consideration, but before she could decide, Graham jumped in.

"Technically, vampires are already shapeshifter. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula could change into a bat, a wolf, and even dust or fog," he explained. When Louise opened her mouth to speak and held up his finger, he quickly added, "That includes shapeshifting into other people, Dracula impersonated not only Jonathan Harker, but other people as well." Louise put down her finger and frowned.

"Doesn't that just help further support Louise's idea though?" Gavin asked. Graham shrugged and nodded his head.

"Yeah, but there's just no need to call them shape-shifting vampires, they're just regular vampires," Graham argued back. 

"Yeah, but it's more fun that way," Adam defended. The three boys and Louise went back and forward between themselves as they argued the points of whether or not vampires should be called shapeshifting vampires or not. Akiko just rolled her eyes and began to play on her phone as they went on, while Rachel smiled at her friends' antics and laid her head on the table, somewhat sleepy from the school day and the lack of sleep she suffered somewhat the night before. She closed her eyes as just listened to the sound of her friends' voices and began to doze off. Suddenly, the voices stopped, causing Rachel to open her eyes and see what caused them to do so. 

Her friends were all frozen with fearful faces, staring together towards where she had just laid her hands in a crossed position. The fear in their eyes caused any drowsiness she had to disappear, and slowly, she began to lift her head and look at what had caused such expressions. Rachel felt her heart stop as she, too, saw the horrifying sight. There, now resting comfortably on her left hand was a single scorpion. Her eyes widened at the sight of the creature, mind wondering where it had come from and how it got to be in that position without her notice.

"Rachel, whatever you do, don't move," Louise urged, never once tearing her gaze from the creature. Rachel shakingly nodded her head at the command. 

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" Graham began to repeatedly ask, his voice rising with each question. Louise quickly shushed him and put a hand on his arm.

"We don't panic, that's for one thing," Louise replied in a firm voice. They all watched it for a couple of seconds before suddenly, a hand shot out and brushed the scorpion off. Rachel quickly leaped up from her seat, the others quickly followed her lead. They all looked up to see Hideo staring down at the scorpion with a strange look in his eyes.

"Hideo?" Akiko called. At the sound of his little sister's voice, Hideo looked up, the spell that seemed to be placed on him breaking. He seemed to finally notice the group of friends before him, his gaze finally resting on Rachel.

"Are you alright, Rachel? It didn't sting you or anything?" he asked with concern. She silently shook her head. He sighed in relief. "Good. You kids should head home. There have been reports of scorpions roaming around the park lately. It's got everyone at the station confused." The group nodded in agreement.

"We can figure out an idea for your film later, kay Akiko?" Louise said, turning to her friend. Akiko nodded in her head in slight defeat. 

"Yeah, see you guys later," she replied, waving her goodbyes as she headed in the direction of her home. One by one the friends said their goodbyes as well and began journeying off in the direction of their houses. Gavin and Rachel walked together in their direction in silence, their moods slightly dampened by the incident that just occurred. Looking up at the multicolored trees as they walked past, Rachel finally broke the silence.

"Do you think it was him?" she asked without looking at her friend. She could feel the confused look he gave her.

"what was who?" he asked. She turned her head to look at him.

"My dad, Mr. Tophat. Do you think that scorpion was him?" she answered. This caused Gavin to frown in confusion even more.

"What makes you think it was? I thought you killed him back in the maze," he replied. Rachel sighed and looked back down at her feet before looking back at him again.

"I don't know. Was it technically killing him if he only turned into a bunch of scorpions?" she asked uncertainly. "I mean, he could have just turned into them and still lived right, just not be able to turn back now that the cane is gone."

"Maybe," Gavin admitted. They walked in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. "Do you want him to be alive?" Rachel sighed once more.

"I don't know! I mean, part of me never wants to see him ever again after all he's done to not only all the children he took but also you guys," Rachel explained, frustrated with the clashing of her emotions.

"And the other part?" Gavin prompted, now wanting to see what she was feeling and hoping to help his friend in any way he can. Rachel came to stop in her walk, Gavin stopping just before her and watching her.

"And the other part of me just wants her father to come back now that I've finally found him," she finished, her shoulders slumping in defeat. She looked down at the ground, unable to look her friend in the eyes due to the confession. Gavin stepped closer and gave her a hug, resting his cheek on her head.

"That's not a bad thing, you know. If I found my long-lost father, evil or not, I would want to have him by my side, too," he reassured, rubbing her back as he felt tears began to fall onto the front of his shirt. "You know, it's kind of weird how normal you seemed to have made it out to be, seeing as your dad's a cursed evil ringleader and your mom's, well, like that, too." he jokingly added, smiling in delight as Rachel began to giggle through her tears. Rachel leaned out of his hug and wiped away her tears.

"Yeah, that is weird, isn't it? But, stranger things have happened. We especially should know that right?" she replied with a smile. Gavin gave a laugh of his own nodded in reply.

"That's true," he agreed. Certain that his friend was no longer in a sullen mood, Gavin joined his arm with hers and together the two began their trek home once more. Soon, they arrived in front of their houses. Both turned to each other to say goodbye. "I'll see you later, right?" Gavin asked.

"Right. Have a nice night, Gavin," Rachel replied with a wave as she started for her front door.

"You, too!" he called back as he did the same with his. Soon, the two friends disappeared from each other's sights as they entered their houses.

Rachel stepped inside the entryway of her house and could hear her mother working in the kitchen. 

"Hi mom!" she called. The shuffling in the kitchen paused and soon her mother appeared through the entrance. As soon as she saw her, her mother smiled brightly at her and walked over to give her a hug.

"Hi, sweetie. How was school today? Anything interesting happen?" she asked as they parted. 

"Good. Nothing interesting really happened. We're trying to help Akiko think of a new idea for her films, though," Rachel replied, deciding to not tell her mother about the scorpion at the park.

"Well, I'm sure you kids will think of something good. I just love her little movies," her mother answered back, turning back to head for the kitchen once more. Rachel smiled at her mother before letting out a yawn.

"I'm a little tired, so I think I'm gonna take a quick nap before dinner and working on my homework," Rachel explained, heading for the stairs as she did. 

"Alright, I'll call you when dinners ready," her mother called back. Rachel gave a nod even though she knew her mother couldn't see her. She quickly made her way to her room and dropped her book-bag next to her desk before collapsing onto her bed. After making herself comfortable, she soon drifted off to sleep.

Rachel ran as fast as she could as she tried to navigate her way through the confusing path before her. All around her, wax figures stared emotionlessly down at her, uncaring of her terrified state. In the background, the shadows of fires burned bright, though she couldn't tell where the flames even were or why they burned. The heat of the fire caused the faces of some of the figures to began to melt and only made Rachel even more uncomfortable and unsettled than she already was. Coming to a fork in the clear path before her, she quickly made the decision to go left. She looked over her shoulder, hoping she lost the one chasing her. The loud crackling of the flames in the distance drowned out any footsteps her assailant could be making as they followed her. Running further and further, she soon found herself at a dead end. Frantic to escape, Rachel ran to the wall, trying to find some hidden passage that would be the key to her escape. Her efforts were fruitless, there was no way except going back the way she came. Turning to go back, she froze in place as she saw with dread, the man chasing her standing only a few feet away, blocking the only way out of the area. 

A smile sat on the man's twist and distorted face. He took a step closer to her. Rachel took a step back in reaction.

"Hello, my little tadpole. I've been looking for you," he greeted. 

"What do you want from me?" Rachel replied, causing the smile to vanish from his face as she refused to greet him back. The smile quickly returned though, just as unsettling as it was before.

"I've come to take you away, little tadpole," he answered, moving closer a step move. Rachel moved back a step.

"To where?" she asked, even more scared as she realized there was no escaping this.

"Somewhere where we can all be friends together. Forever and ever," he answered once more, spreading his arms out to wave at their wax audience.

"What if I don't want to go with you?" she threw back defiantly. The smile vanished once more, this time it didn't return.

"You don't have a choice, tadpole," he snapped back. He then began to make his way towards her. In one last effort to escape, Rachel tried to dodge by him and run away. The man's hand shot out and grabbed at her arm, the contact causing her scream in fear and pain as his unnaturally hot hand latched onto her wrist.

Rachel shot up in her bed, screaming with tears in her eyes. Her bedroom door flew open as her mother ran into her room as her scream. 

"Rachel?" she yelled in worry as the sight of her terrified daughter. She quickly took her into her arms as the girl began to sob. "It's alright, you're alright. It's just a nightmare sweetie, just a nightmare." she soothed, petting her head. They sat there like that for a few moments more before her mother finally pulled away. "Are you alright?" she asked. Rachel gave her a hesitant nod. "You sure?" 

"Yeah, it was just a bad dream. Must have been watching too many scary stuff likely, I guess," Rachel replied with another nod. Her mother seemed hesitant to accept the answer, but finally nodded to herself and stood up.

"Alright then. Dinner's ready downstairs. I made spaghetti and meatballs," she said with a smile, hoping to cheer up her daughter. 

"Sounds delicious, I'll be down in a minute," Rachel replied with a matching smile. Her mother gave another nod and left the room. She watched the door for a moment, listening to the sound of her mother descending the stair before finally moving. She tried to make her way towards the door, but as she moved her arm to push herself off of the bed, she let out a hiss as pain shot through her entire body. Snatching her arm up and towards herself, she pushed up her sleeve to reveal what could have made the pain. Rachel froze and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the source of her pain. There, in the same exact spot as where the man in her dream had grabbed her, was a burn mark in the shape of a hand right around her wrist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. If so, why not leave a kudos or a comment? I'll see you all next week with part 3 of this tale.
> 
> P.S. if you see any errors, feel free to point them out. Grammarly can only notice so many things.


	3. Do You Believe in Magic?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the evidence of a new evil closing in, Rachel and her friends begin their search for a solution. In their search they meet a new ally and learn more than they were expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well back everyone! The story continues! Enjoy!

"So, this guy was chasing you and grabbed you in your dream and when you woke up, this burn mark was there?" Graham clarified, leaning with the others over Rachel's outstretched arm, examining said mark. Rachel nodded her head silently. "And this is the second time you've seen this guy? This first was a repeat of your dream with Mr. Tophat?" Rachel nodded her head once more. "So, he's -."

"Yes, Graham!" Akiko interrupted as he went to ask more questions. "The answer is most likely yes, seeing as you're just saying everything she just told us." 

"I'm just trying to make certain we understand everything. You can't be too careful with stuff like this," Graham defended with a frown. Akiko rolled her eyes as Louise shook her head at his antics. Louise examined the mark once more before looking up to her friend.

"So, this never happened before in any of your dreams?" she asked. Rachel shook her head.

"No, never. When it was Mr. Tophat, he just chased me and scared me into waking up," she explained. 

"And this isn't some kind of memory you may have forgotten and are just remembering like before with Mr. Tophat?" Gavin asked next. 

"No. If it was, why would I just get the mark now?" she asked back. Gavin nodded in agreement, looking back at the mark.

"What if it's not a memory from the past, but something that hasn't happen yet?" Adam then questioned. The others all looked at him before thinking the idea over. Louise quickly shook her head.

"No, that still wouldn't explain the mark," she answered. 

"So, what do we do now?" Gavin asked afterward. They all began went silent once more as they tried to think of a solution. 

"I have no idea, we don't even know what we up against," Rachel finally admitted. The others all nodded their agreement. "We have no choice but to wait until he finally shows up for real just like Mr. Tophat did."

"But what if, like Mr. Tophat, he tries to take one of us? What if he tries to take you? I mean you are the one he's after, after all," Louise asked. Graham quickly snapped his fingers as he thought of an answer.

"What if we get a protection spell and cast it to protect us from him?" he offered. Akiko raised her eyebrow in doubt at the idea.

"A protection spell?" she asked. At him nodding his head, she continued. "Where are we supposed to get a protection spell from? It's not like a magic shop is just going to magically appear out of nowhere." Just then, Rachel's mother entered through the front door, carrying in the groceries she brought home from the supermarket.

"Hey, kids. You'll never believe what just opened up over in the outlets," she greeted with a smile. They all mumbled their greetings, Rachel quickly covering her mark with her sleeve to hide its existence from her mother.

"Hey mom, what is it?" she greeted back. With her back turned to the kids, her mother couldn't see the worried smile she gave her in fear of being caught with the mark. 

"A magic shop!" she replied with excitement. The group all turned to look at Akiko with the same disbelief on their faces. Akiko stared in shock with her mouth open as she heard the news. She quickly shut it and gave a forced smile as the woman turned to face them.

"You don't say. Maybe we can go check it out. Wouldn't that be fun, you guys?" Akiko replied, looking at her friends with urgency at the end. They all nodded, still shocked at the news.

"That sounds like a great idea. I can drop you all off after I finish putting these groceries away, how does that sound?" Rachel's mother said back. She then turned back to the bags in front of her, setting off on her task. Still looking in shock at each other, Graham was the first to speak.

"So, Akiko. What were you saying about a magic shop?" he asked. Akiko shot him a glare as the rest began to laugh.

The friends all stood close together as they took in the shop. It still had its blank signage hanging over the shop, obviously not yet gotten to placing their own sign. From the outside, they could see a few very ordinary objects displaced in the front window in front of a set of curtains hiding the rest of the shop from sight. A just as ordinary "Open" sign hung on the shop's door. Rachel's mother quickly walked up to stand behind them. 

"Doesn't look like much from out here, does it?" she stated. "I'm sure the inside is a lot more interesting." She then moved past the children as she made her way inside. After looking at one another, the group of friends all followed after her.

The inside of the shop was indeed a lot more interesting. Shelves were lined with all different kinds of objects and knick-knacks. From jars filled with different types of dried plants to something claiming to be a monkey's foot, and from tarot cards to x-ray glasses, the shop seemed to have it all. There was a doorway with beads and curtains hiding whatever was on the other side along one of the walls placed behind a large counter that seemed to serve as the check-out area as it had the only cash register in the shop placed on top of it. The shelves on the counter were filled with small things like candy and cheap little toys. All in all, the shop was certainly like nothing they ever saw before. The shop had an unworldly vibe to it, mostly due to it being completely empty except for them.

"Hello?" Adam called as he walked over to the check out counter. Suddenly, there was the sound of banging and things falling coming from behind the curtains followed by the sound of someone cursing. Finally, the curtains parted as a middle-age man stepped through, flashing the boy a wide smile. The man was tan skinned with curly greying black hair falling in ringlets. He wore a brightly colors patterned underneath a just as brightly colored vest. 

"Hello there! Welcome to Sardo's Magic Mansion! I am, of course, Sardo. How may I help you today, young man?" the man, Sardo, greeted, making his way to stand in front of Adam. Rachel's mother made her way over to the counter and offered her hand to him, which we gladly shook.

"Hi there, Mr. Sardo," she tried to greet back but was quickly cut off.

"Sar-DOH! No mister, accent on the do!" he quickly said. Rachel's mother gave him a slightly put off smile.

"Sorry," she apologized. He waved her off.

"Happens all the time," he consoled.

"Well, hello there, Sardo. I'm Hannah Carpenter, and this is my daughter, Rachel," she tried again, turning to show Rachel. Rachel awkwardly waved her hand to him, uncomfortable with being forced to say hello. He gave her a bright smile and nod in return. "We saw you had just opened up shop here, so we decided to pop in and take a look."

"Excellent! We have so many things for sale," he replied. He turned back to face Adam. "Now, how about a popularity spell? It will surely make everyone want to be your friend!" Adam shook his head at the offer, looking over his shoulder to look at his friend. "No? Already got all the friends you need? Good for you. Perhaps a charm to make you strong? I know, how about a love potion? Girls will be just throwing themselves into your arms!" With the offer, Sardo indicated a different item on the shelves around them. The popular spell o the shelves with different kinds of rolled up papers, the strength charm was a simple looking amulet that looked like something you could get at any old store, and the love potion was a small vial with what looked like glow stick juice in it. Adam gave him a weird look.

"I'm thirteen," he simply answered. Rachel's mother gave him an affection smile at his reaction. 

"Very well," Sardo accepted. He looked around the room as he tried to think of anything else he could offer them. One idea seemed to have popped into his head as he smiled to himself. "Have you seen our vomit?" The whole group looked at him in confusion and disgust. "Our fake vomit. It's our best seller!" he continued, seeming to not notice their reactions.

"Uncle Sardo claims it's our best-seller, but for as long as I can remember, I haven't seen one person buy that stuff," a voice called out. They all turned to look at the source of the voice. Now standing in the doorway, holding the curtains to one side, was a young woman with an unimpressed expression on her face. Both Gavin and Rachel looked at each other as she quickly recognized her as the girl they had seen earlier the day before as they were heading for school. She was wearing a denim shirt with a black shirt underneath it. Her long blonde hair was partially pulled up in a bun with the rest just laying flat. She strolling over to stand next to Sardo and offered her black nail polished hand to Rachel's mother. "Cassidy, at your service. So, anything, in particular, you folks are looking for?" Her eyes trailed over them all, finally coming to rest on Rachel as she unconsciously began to rub at her arm, just above where the mark sat in her wrist. Cassidy seemed to give her a look, to Rachel quickly looked at the back of her mother's head. Understanding just enough of the situation, Cassidy moved to stand just out of the sight of her mother and began to gesture to her uncle to distract her somewhere else. His eyes flicked between her and Rachel before he looked back at the woman before him and gave her a wide smile.

"You know what! We have just the loveliest looking jewelry that I'm certain would look delightful on you! They're just this way," he declared, moving from behind the counter and guided her away. As soon as they were far enough away, Cassidy turned to face Rachel.

"Ok, what are you in the need for?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Do you have any protection spells?" she asked timidly. Cassidy looked at her in worried at the request.

"Well, we might, but I can't guarantee they'll work. Most of the stuff here is just junk Uncle Sardo tricks people in buying. What would you need one, away?" she replied. Rachel looked at her friends uncertainly before raising her arm and revealing the bright red mark on her wrist. Cassidy's eyes widen in shock at the sight, quickly taking the arm into her hands, making sure to avoid aggravating it.

"Who did this?" she asked, looking Rachel in the eyes. 

"Would you believe me if I said a man did this in a dream?" she replied. Cassidy's worried frown deepened at the question. She then guided the girl to the counter and rested the arm on it as she moved behind it. 

"Tell me everything," she requested, moving into the other room as she did.

"There's this man. His face is all messed up and twisted. His skin as if it was melted. He was chasing me in both of the dreams I had of him," Rachel began to tell as Cassidy returned with a small box in her hands. She placed the box on the counter next to her arm and began pulling different things out. She pulled out a small roll of gauze and cotton balls followed by a small bottle with some kind of liquid in it. "The first dream, I had before, though it was something different back then. The second, he was chasing me through this maze of wax figures."

"Wax figures?" Cassidy paused in her movement at the statement. She then unscrewed the cap of the small bottle before putting a cotton ball over the top and tilting it upside-down, wetting the cotton in whatever the liquid was. 

"Yeah, and there was all this fire burning in the background, but I couldn't see where it was coming from," Rachel continued. Cassidy put the bottle upright again and placed the cap back on it. She took hold of Rachel's arm and began to dab at it with the cotton ball. Rachel hissed at the contact it made, surprised at the coldness of it. Cassidy shot her an apologizing look as she continued to dab at the arm. The coolness of the liquid actually helped soothe the pain and heat feeling of the mark. "I ran as fast as I could to escape from him, but he cornered me in a dead-end. I tried to get away, he grabbed my arm."

"Is that how you got the mark?" she asked, throwing the cotton ball somewhere underneath the counter, moving to grab the gauze now. She unfurled the gauze and began to wrap it around her wrist. Rachel nodded her head.

"When he grabbed me, it hurt so much, I woke up screaming. I went to get up and my arm suddenly began to hurt. When I pulled back my sleeve, there it was. It was in the same spot and everything," Rachel finally finished. Cassidy nodded and finished wrapping her wrist. She pulled the sleeve back down and began putting everything back in the box.

"And none of you have any clue who he is?" she asked, looking up at the children as she did. They all shook their heads.

"No, he's no one we ever met or heard of before," Louise explained. Cassidy put the lid back on the box and placed her hands on each side of it.

"You kids wouldn't be a part of something called The Midnight Society, would you?" she inquired. At their shocked expression, she gave a small smirk. "Well, then have any of you heard or told a story that involved someone of his description or may have resulted in someone being burned or melted?" 

"No, none of us have," Gavin answered since he was in the group the longest. 

"Why would it matter if we did?" Akiko asked. Cassidy sighed and tilted her head while thinking to herself.

"Well, its because sometimes, when a story gets told over and over again for a long enough time, it can cease being just a fictional story and begin to be something that's true," she eventually answered, her eyes looking in the direction of where the adults were still talking. She then looked back at the group in front of her and frowned. "Is there anything else you remember about the man. Anything unique he said that may help point to his identity?" They all shook their heads. Cassidy nodded and disappeared into the other room to return the box to where she got it from. As she did, Rachel remembered a detail of her dream that stood out to her.

"He called me a 'little tadpole'," Rachel called out. A sudden crash came from the room, causing everyone to jump, including the adults who came running over to see what had happened. There was the sound of running before Cassidy appeared in the doorway with a frightened look on her face.

"What did he call you?" she asked urgently, moving closer to look at Rachel. 

"Who called Rachel what?" Rachel's mother asked, utterly confused from what was happening. Rachel looked worrying to her friends before repeating the name.

"Little tadpole," she repeated. Cassidy's fearful eyes looked to her uncle, his face now fixed with fear. 

"Cassidy?" he asked with urgency. Cassidy nodded her head and licked her lips before answering.

"Nobody," she whispered.

"What?" Rachel's mother asked in confusion.

"His name was Mr. Nobody. Or at least that's what he claimed his name to be," she explained with anger in her eyes.

"Who's Mr. Nobody?" Rachel asked. Cassidy shook her head, unable to bring herself to answer, instead, placing her face in her hands.

"All you need to know is that Mr. Nobody was a very bad man who tried to do something terrible years ago," Sardo answered for her, looking with a mix of sadness and anger towards Cassidy the whole time.

"Little tadpole was what he called his last intended victim. Because 'she was jumpy like a frog, but as she was still only a child, she was nothing more than a little tadpole!'," Cassidy added in with mock excitement at the end. "He was caught in a fire in a wax museum before he could do anything to her." Rachel felt uneasy at the answer, looking at her friends for comfort. Rachel's mother looked around in confusion before speaking.

"I'm sorry, what is this all about?" she asked. Cassidy sighed before standing up straight once more.

"Nothing. Rachel was just telling me about the nightmare she had. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," she explained, lying through her teeth most likely to cover for Rachel. "She most likely heard someone mention the nickname and him in passing at some point and her brain held onto that information, which is why it turned up in the dream." She came around the counter and walked over to one of the shelves. She picked up a dreamcatcher from where it hung alongside other dreamcatchers and brought it back over to Rachel. "This should keep the bad dreams away from now on. I'll ring you up." She quickly added the last part as she held up his finger to stop her uncle as he opened his mouth. She then gave him a pointed look as she went up to the register. She quickly tapped the buttons and brought them up. "That will be 15 dollars."

"15? Those dreamcatchers cost 75 dollars!" Sardo bellowed. She shot him a glare.

"Well, seeing as they're our first customers and I'm feeling generous, it's 80% off," she hissed back. Rachel couldn't help but laugh a little as Sardo pouted.

"Fine, but we're losing out on the deal," he said. Cassidy rolled her eyes and took the money Rachel's mother passed to her.

"Do I look like I care, you money hungry jerk?" she shot back. Sardo let out a 'humph' and disappeared behind the curtains, returning to whatever he had been doing before Rachel and the others had arrived. Cassidy placed the purchase into a small paper bag and handed it to Rachel with a smile. "Have a wonderful day. Hopefully, this will help with the bad dreams." 

"Thank you," Rachel smiled back. They all said their goodbyes and headed for the door. Just as they opened the door to leave, Cassidy called out.

"One more thing! I have a question for you kids," she said. They all turned to look at her. With a mischievous look in her eye, she asked, "Do you think tonight would be a good night to tell a scary story? I'm feeling a bit inspired for telling one." Rachel and her friends all looked at each other, fully knowing what she was asked about. After each one gave a nod to one another, Rachel looked back at her. 

"I think tonight would be the perfect night for one," she answered. 

"Take care," she said with a smirk.

Adam was the last to arrive at the fire.

"Is she here yet?" he asked, out of breath. Louise shook her head.

"No, not yet," she answered. Graham looked around into the darkness, trying to see if he could see anything.

"Do you think she's even going to come?" he whispered.

"Of course, didn't you hear what she said?" Akiko firmly replied. "'A good night to tell a scary story'? Why else would she ask that if she wasn't planning to come?" Graham shrugged.

"Maybe she actually was curious about it," he offered. Just then, a twig snapped near them, just outside of the fire's light. They all jumped and looked in the direction. Emerging from the shadows was an amused looking Cassidy. 

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said.

"We were waiting for you actually," Rachel admitted. 

"Then, I hope I didn't make you wait too long. Uncle Sardo told my father about what happened today. Let's say he wasn't too happy about it," she explained as she moved closer, taking a step on one of the unoccupied tree stumps.

"So, why did you want to meet with us?" Louise asked after a moment. Cassidy looked at her before tilting her head.

"I thought that if you kids really are dealing with Mr. Nobody, it would be better if you knew his story so you can maybe figure out what his motives for coming after Rachel might be," she explained. 

"His story?" Rachel asked with furrowed brows. Cassidy nodded and held her hand out to Louise and Akiko. They looked at her in confusion before she pointed to the pouch that was sitting on the ground between them. Understanding what she now wanted, Louise picked it up and handed it to her. She quickly opened the pouch and pulled out a hand full of the pouch's special contents.

"Submitted for the approval of The Midnight Society," she began, throwing the powder into the fire, causing it to flare up and flicker different colored flames. "I call this story, The Tale of Mr. Nobody."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus begins the haunting tale that will give more questions than answers to the children. Unfortunately, I don't know when the next chapter will be posted. Due to work and finals, I haven't been able to work much on the next part, especially since i'm not sure how im going to break it up into parts. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out during the freetime i have and get next part up soon. Until then, take care!


	4. The Tale of Mr. Nobody: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassidy finally begins her tale and the story behind the mysterious Mr. Nobody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I haven't finished the whole tale yet, but I wanted to get something out for everyone in honor of the holidays, so I hope you all enjoy!

Nicolet was a lonely girl who didn't have many friends.

Now, this wasn't because of any lack of trying. In fact, she always tried to make friends with every person she met, always being on her best behavior and make sure to come off as a friendly person. Despite her efforts, she never seemed to be able to have a friendship that lasted longer than a few months. There were many reasons for this.

One very important reason to note was the fact that for as long as she could remember, she has never lived in one place for more than a few months. You see, Nicolet  
father's occupations changed as quickly as the weather and so they would move from town to town with each change.

Another reason was her father himself. Her father was an odd man with many odd interests. He often changed careers every few months. The two times something held his interest for long was Nicolet herself and that one time he lived in the woods for 50 years. Now, also due to her father's oddness, people weren't always the biggest fans of him. Which was probably because he himself wasn't a fan of people. Her father had trouble making himself care about other people, especially when it came to his interests and experiments. On several occasions, her father placed different people in danger and other upsetting situations for the sole purpose of completing or continuing his experiments. This was also a reason for them moving a lot, them having to up and flee from the town in the effort of escaping any prosecution for any trouble her father has caused people.

The next reason for Nicolet's lack of friends was the fact she lacked a mother. Children and people, in general, tended to find a problem with the fact she didn't have a mother in her life. It is important to note that Nicolet's mother wasn't dead or didn't leave them when she was young. Though, this is what most people thought was the situation. You see, Nicolet never had a mother to begin with. As stated before, Nicolet’s father was an odd man, an odd man who truth be told, was quite the mad scientist. And as a mad scientist, he of course, like many mad scientists attempt to do, made life all by himself. Well, not all by himself, her uncle helped out a bit. From what her father and her uncle, who isn't actually her uncle but a friend of her father's, though her father insists he's nothing more than an acquaintance, have told her on different occasions, she was created in one of her father's makeshift labs, inside of a test tube. How they managed to successfully create her, even they don't know as at the time it was an accident caused by her uncle tripping into the table and knocking over vials of different ingredients into the mixture her father was working on. Even on an odder note was that, despite not being naturally born, she still managed to have a belly button as well. But even if it was nothing more than an accident, Nicolet was born that night, born crying out to the world just as everyone baby did when they were born. 

As she grew, Nicolet would occasionally hear her father and uncle discuss the subject of a mother, her uncle saying that having a mother would certainly help with Nicolet's growth, especially seeing as she was a girl and neither knew a single thing when it came to that. Her father would then reply he had no interest in having a wife and even so, what woman in their right mind would even want to be a part of this family, even if it meant having someone as delightful as Nicolet as a daughter. Eventually, both would agree that her having a mother was out of the picture and they would just have to do what they could to give her the best childhood. To be honest, Nicolet could never understand why so many people found a problem with her family, she was perfectly happy with having just her uncle and father, with or without a mother.

The final reason and the most important reason for Nicolet's loneliness was Nicolet herself. As his daughter, Nicolet inherited her father's strangeness. There would often be times when Nicolet would grow too excited about something and end up freaking other children out with her excitement. There was also the fact that despite being the first to admit that her father wasn't the best person in the world, she could not stand anyone talking lowly of her father and would jump to his defense time after time. This in and of itself did not help with making friends as her defending her father caused others to believe she was just as strange as he was. Finally, the biggest reason people didn't want to be her friend was the simple fact that she was scared of everything. 

You would think that being the daughter of such a strange man would desensitize her to all things scary, but the only thing it did was make her even more afraid as she learned that all the things parents insist were make-believe and could never truly hurt you were, in fact, real and could indeed hurt you. Her father blames her uncle for this unfortunate trait as he insisted that when her uncle had hit the chemicals into his mixture that fateful night, a sample of his DNA also fell in and in turn, she inherited her uncle's jumpy nature. Not only did she inherit it, but it seemed to be in an even greater degree than he was. Clowns, dogs, the dark, loud noises, heights, thunderstorms, insects, needles, and even fear itself if you could name it, she was most likely scared of it. Due to this fearful nature, she would often find herself to be the subject of ridicule by her peers and nowhere nearer to having friends.

And so, due to her loneliness, Nicolet welcomed any friendship she could. Though, as Nicolet would eventually learn, not every friendship was a good thing, even when it presented itself in the most appealing of forms.

It started out as every usual day did, she would get up and get ready for school, saying goodbye to her family, and head to school. It begins to take a turn when lunch had arrived. She was eating her lunch, as usual, trying to be as quiet and small as possible as she only half-listened to whatever her friends were chattering about at the now.

"What about you, Nicolet?" Julie had asked, causing Nicolet to jump in her seat at the unexpected question. The others, Maxwell, Connor, and Betty, all snorted at her reaction but fortunately said nothing.

"What about me?" Nicolet asked back, unsure of what was being discussed. Julie rolled her eyes and gave the others a look.

"What ride to you want to ride first at the carnival, duh!" Julie looked at her as though it had been obvious. Frowning, Nicolet tilted her head in confusion.

"What carnival?" she asked back. The others laughed, causing her to blush in embarrassment.

"The one that just arrived in town, of course! It's only the thing we've been talking about since lunch started!" Betty answered, waving her hand around to prove her point, to which the others all nodded in agreement. "So, what ride do you want to go on?"

"Why would I want to go on a ride if I'm not even gonna go? I hate carnivals," Nicolet replied, shrinking in her seat as she imagined all the scary things that the carnival might hold. 

"Hate carnivals, how can anyone hate carnivals?" Maxwell asked, looking around at the others in his disbelief.

"Carnivals are scary, they have clowns, and big rides, and the screaming and the crying just bothers me. I just hate carnivals," Nicolet mumbled from her shrunken position.

"Aw, is wittle Nicky scared of the big old carnival?" Betty cooed in a mocking voice. Both Maxwell and Connor snorted once more at the joke.

"Even if I wanted to go, I don't think my dad would even let me. He doesn't like carnivals either," Nicolet said, sitting up a little more in an effort to try to stop the teasing.

"Who cares what he thinks? Everyone knows he's a crazy whack-job," Julie sneered. Nicolet felt a flare of anger in her chest at the insult.

"My father isn't a whack-job. Just because he's different doesn't mean you can just insult him like that," Nicolet defended. 

"Whatever, just don't be such a scaredy-cat, Nicolet. Nothings going to happen to you, it's just a stupid carnival," Julie said.

"Yeah, Nicolet. Don't worry, if you get scared, we'll protect you," Connor added, causing Maxwell to laugh at the joke. Julie just rolled her eyes and looked at Nicolet with an expectant expression. Nicolet looked at her hands for a moment before sighing and looking up again.

"You promise nothing bad will happen?" she asked. Julie gave a sigh of her own as Bettie rolled her eyes.

"I promise," Julie replied.

"Ok, I'll go," Nicolet finally answered. It was then that the bell ran to signal lunch was over. Nicolet quickly got up and went off to throw away her trash, As she moved away, she failed to see the devious smiles her friends gave each other as they watched her go.

Nicolet sat in the back seat nervously as she watched the scenery go by. In the seats in front of her, her friends chattered excitingly as they drew closer to the site of the carnival. Soon, the car came to a stop and the children began to pile out. Nicolet waited until the last one was out to make her own way out, having to push forward the seat in front of her to make her exit. Once out, the group turned to look into the front seat of the car where Betty's mother was seating.

"I'll be back in two hours to pick you kids up, alright?" Betty's mother called out. Betty rolled her eyes but gave her mother a smile. 

"Thanks, mom. See ya later," Betty replied before her, Julie, Maxwell, and Connor turned to make their trek to the entrance. Nicolet stayed back for a second as she gave Betty's mother a wave goodbye.

"Thank you for the ride, Mrs. Peters," Nicolet said as she waved. Mrs. Peters gave Nicolet a strained smile in return before driving away. Nicolet tried to not let smile bother her, instead just turning and running after her friends to catch up with them. The group made their way into the line and began their wait to the entrance. It wasn't until they drew close to the entrance area that Nicolet read the name in the sign hanging above it all. Nicolet's eyes widened in horror and recognition as she realized where they were headed for. 

"Wait a minute," Graham interrupted. Cassidy raised an eyebrow at him, slightly annoyed with him for stopping her story. "Is this going where I think it's going?" 

"And where is that?" Cassidy crossed her arms, unamused by his question.

"Nicolet and her friends are going to the Carnival of Doom, aren't they?" Graham asked, a smile on his face, proud of himself for figuring out the twist.

"I don't know, Graham. Maybe if you let me tell the story, we can find out," Cassidy frowned in annoyance. Rachel and Gavin tried to hide smiles as Louise and Akiko crossed their arms as well. Adam just looked at Cassidy with curiosity in his eyes.

"Are they?" he asked Cassidy timidly. Cassidy opened her mouth, but Graham spoke before she could answer.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? I mean why else would Nicolet be so scared at the sight of it?" Graham said. He looked at the others for support of his statement. They said nothing as Cassidy looked even more annoyed.

"Well, it's so obvious, then I don't see why I need to continue my story. It's obvious that you don't need my help figuring out why Mr. Nobody is so angry with Mr. Tophat, then," Cassidy snapped. She then stood and turned to leave the meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I ended this chapter on a good part, most of my problems with this part of the story was figuring out when to break them all up. Hopefully, I decided correctly with this chapter. I also hope to post the next part soon, I'll try to work on it tonight while I'm enjoying my holidays. Until then, take care everyone!


	5. The Tale of Mr Nobody: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tale of Mr. Nobody continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to complete this, I had some troubles while working on this. In apology, I've decided to upload this chapter today and tomorrow, I'll be uploading the third and finally part of this tale! I hope you all enjoy!

“Well, it’s so obvious, then I don’t see why I need to continue my story. It’s obvious that you don’t need my help figuring out why Mr. Nobody is so angry with Mr. Tophat, then,” Cassidy snapped. She then stood and turned to leave the meeting.

\-----  
Rachel sprang up at the sight.

“No!” she cried out, putting her hands out to stop her. Cassidy paused in her movement and looked at the younger girl. “Please, Cassidy. We want to know what happened. We promise not to interrupt anymore. Right, guys?” The teens rapidly nodded their heads in an effort to prevent Cassidy’s department. 

“Sorry, Cassidy. I promise no to talk until the stories over,” Graham apologized, looking down in regret of his mistake. Cassidy looked at him critically but then sighed. 

“Alright, where was I?” she wondered as she sat down once more.

Nicolet’s eyes widened in fear and recognition as she realized where they were headed for. She quickly stepped in front of her friends and faced them.

“You told me that the carnival wouldn’t be scary!” she screeched, causing people to look in their direction with curious stares.

“Yeah?” Julie scoffed. They moved a few steps forward in the line

“It’s the Carnival of Doom!” she yelled, pointed her finger at the sign saying the name. The others looked at the sign and then at her.

“So?” Connor raised his brow.

“The point of the Carnival of Doom is to scare people!” Nicolet hissed back. Betty’s eyes widened as this was the first time she ever saw the girl so livid and fierce. 

“How would you even know that?” Julie asked. The line then shifted once more, causing the group to move.

“Because I’ve been to the Carnival of Doom. Several times in fact,” she explained.

“I thought you hated carnivals,” Connor said in a mocking voice. Nicolet shot him a glare, causing the teasing smile on the boy's faces to vanish.

“I do, and this place is the reason why,” she replied. The group moved once more, moving closer and closer to the entrance. 

“Why would you going there repeatedly then if you hate it so much?” Julie asked. Nicolet huffed and looked away into the distance before answering.

“My dad knows the owner,” she admitted. 

“Your crazy father is friends with the owner of the carnival?” Betty asked in disbelief. Nicolet snorted at the question.

“One, my dad’s not crazy. And two, friends wouldn’t be the words I would describe their relationship,” she answered. Then under her breath, low enough so they couldn’t hear her, “villain and victim would be more like it.”

“So, what? Are you saying you want to leave? If so, you’re on your own because we’re not leaving just because you don’t like the carnival,” Julie explained. Nicolet sighed and thought over her options as the line moved. Finally, she looked at her friends.

“You promise you won’t let anything bad happen?” she asked, looking her friend in the eyes. 

“I promise,” Julie answered back, match her stare. Nicolet held the look for a moment more before breaking it and nodding.

“Ok, I’ll stay then,” she finally agreed. She then turned to face the head of the line, just in time to watch as the people ahead of them entered the carnival and the ticket-taker called out for the next people. The group moved forward and turned to face him. The ticket-taker looking down at them behind a pair of sunglasses and a face full of clown make-up. His eyes seemed to come to rest on Nicolet, as he smiled at her.

“Little Nicolet! Been a while since you and your family’s been here!” he declared, leaning forward and to take a closer look at her, flipping up his tinted lens to reveal a set of brown eyes from behind them

“Yeah, well, dad’s still upset over what happened the last time we were here,” she replied, ignoring the looks her friends gave her. She gave him a smile and handed him her admission money. He gladly took it and turned back to the others, his smile vanished and he held out his hand for their money. The group quickly handed over theirs, causing him to give them a smile as well.

“Enjoy!” he said. The friends quickly made their way away from him, unsettled by his presence. As they walked away, Nicolet looked back over her shoulder, watching as the clown leaned forwards and watching them walk away. He flipped up his glasses, causing Nicolet shutter as she took in his true set of eyes, or should she said his lack of any.

(“Just like in Rachel’s story!”

“Shut up, Graham!”

“Sorry.”)

Nicolet quickly turned away as the man gave her a devious smile and flipped them back down as he leaned back to face the next guests. Betty and the boys looked over at her with curious looks.

“what happened the last time you were here?” she asked excitedly.

“Let’s just say my dad wasn’t happy with the owner for trying to make me part of the show,” she answered, doing jazz hands at the end. 

“Cool,” Maxwell said as he shared an awed look with Connor. Just then, the announcement system came to life.

“Will all guest make their way for the large tent in the middle of the carnival. The opening show will begin shortly,” a baritone voice announced over the system. Julie shared a look with Bettie, Connor, and Maxwell before looking over at Nicolet. 

“Nicolet, will you go get us some popcorn for the show? We’ll save you a seat,” she sweetly asked. Nicolet gave her a look but nodded her head. As she headed for the nearest concession stand, the rest gave each other smiles as they headed for the tent.

Nicolet arrived at the tent by the time most of the other guests were already in their seats. She looked around for her friends for a moment before finally seeing them wave at her from the middle of the left row. She quickly made her way over and handed them each their bags of popcorn.

“Thanks, Nicolet!” Bettie cheerfully said as she ate a few kernels. Nicolet nodded in acceptance and sat down as the lights dimmed and a one-armed man stood in the middle of the show area.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! My name is Bartholomew!” Bartholomew bellowed into his microphone. “It is with great honor I present to you, a man known by many names. A man who is a friend to no one man! Mr. Tophat!” He turned and waved his only hand with the mic in hand to the curtains hanging in the back of the tent. The spotlights overhead followed his wave to shine bright on the area. Slowly, a man appeared from behind the curtains, keeping his face hidden underneath his large top hat. He slowly made his way to the center, with each step he took, he slammed the golden tipped cane in his left hand down and with it, the audience stomped their feet as well. When he finally reached the center, he gave the crowd a smile.

“Welcome one and all! Ladies and gentlemen. Goblins and ghouls. Witches and warlocks! I welcome you to the show of your nightmares. Where everything that goes bump in the night comes to life! Welcome to the Carnival of Doom!” Mr. Tophat greeted, his voice rising higher and higher as he went until finally becoming a shout. He threw out his hands, and with so, revealed his face. Mr. Tophat was a handsome man with rich brown curls and enchanting pale green eyes. He wore a red velvet coat over a black shirt and a pair of gold and black sequined trousers. His eyes scanned over the crowd, taking in the faces of his audience. His eyes came to rest on Nicolet, his smile widened as he chuckled to himself. “It’s always so nice to see a familiar face in the crowd.” he cooed as he watched her nervous face. He finally looked away to look over the rest of the crow once more. “Tonight, you will see things that make frighten you. That may shake you to your core. But know this. No matter how scary it may all seem. It’s all. part. of. the. show!” He ticked off each word with a finger in his free hand. Nicolet whispered the words along with him as he did. She watched entrancing all the whole spiel, reliving the memories of each previous time she came and watched him perform. “I welcome you all to enjoy yourselves tonight. As you ride the rides and have the living daylights out of you, remember to just have fun! And always remember It’s all..” he then pointed to the crowd, prompting them to repeat his previous words.

“Part of the show!” they all cried out. As they did, Nicolet felt something tickle her shoulder. Thinking one of her friends wanted to say something, she turned to look over. Crawling along her shoulder was a bunch of different bugs. Her sight flickered down her arm as she noticed more and more bugs scattered all over her side, finally coming to a rest on her bag of popcorn, which now had its own bugs sprinkled on top of it. She let out a terrified scream at the sight of them, jumping up in her seat and frantic to get them off of her and away from the disgusting creatures. The sounds of her friends’ laughter froze her in her place, causing her to look up with tears in her eyes as they all laughed at her expense. 

“Aw, what’s wrong? Is little Nicky scared of some little bugs?” Julie sneered with delight.

“Yeah, is little Nicky going to cry for her daddy?” Connor joined in. They all began to throw jabs at her, each word feeling like a punch to the gut. She looked around her and took in the sight of the people surrounding them. Some looked over with sympathy as they heard the things the other children were saying. Some were laughing with them, enjoying her reaction. Others looked on with anger or annoyance in their eyes, most at the rude children who made her scream and some at her for interrupting the show. Mr. Tophat and Bartholomew were one of the ones who looked on with anger in their eyes, knowing fully well who she was and how easily frightened she can be. Unable to take it all anymore, Nicolet turned and hurried away out of the tent, ignoring the sounds of people calling after her as she did. 

Nicolet sat in a curled ball hidden away from the sight of the other patrons, sobbing into her hands.

“Are you alright there, my child?” a voice asked from behind her. Nicolet let out a small scream as she jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance. Standing not far from her was a man. He was an older gentleman, his graying black hair making him seem older than Mr. Tophat but younger than her father. His outfit seemed slightly outdated, reminding much of Mr. Bartholomew’s clothing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“I’m fine,” she answered with a sniffle. He gave her a gentle smile and held out a handkerchief. “Thank you,” she said as she took the offered handkerchief and dabbed her eyes with it.

“That was quite a terrible thing your friends did to you back there. Who in their right mind would pull something like that?” he shook his head. Nicolet shrugged her shoulders and looked at the handkerchief in her hands. 

“It's not like it’s anything new. Everything scares me and they know that. Seeing me scared even makes them laugh,” she replied. The man frowned at the admission.

“That’s no excuse. You can’t help the way you are,” he defended, causing Nicolet to become even more upset.

“I don’t want to be so scared, though! I just want to have friends and Julie says that nobody wants to be friends with scaredy-cat!” Nicolet cried to the man. The man sat there with her with a sympathetic look in his eyes. 

“There’s nothing wrong with being scared, my dear,” he consoled. “You don’t deserve to be so mistreated by people who are supposed to be there for you when you are scared.” Nicolet then studied the man for a moment.

“Who even are you?” she finally asked. He paused for a second before smiling to himself.

“My name is Mr. Nobody,” he answered and held out his hand. Nicolet frowned at the answer.

“Mr. Nobody? What kind of name is that?” she asked, causing him to chuckle.

“Because, as you said, nobody wants to be friends with a scaredy-cat, and I, myself, would be delighted to be your ‘scaredy-cat’ self’s friend. So, I’m Nobody, Mr. Nobody!” he said with delight. She stared at him before breaking out into laughter, finally taking his outstretched hand and shaking it.

“Well then, It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Nobody,” she greeted. “My name is Nicolet.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Nicolet, my dear little tadpole,” he greeted back.

“Tadpole?” she giggled.

“Well, from how you reacted to my presence, I would say you’re jumpy like a frog, but seeing as you’re only a child, you’re nothing more than a little tadpole, my little tadpole,” he explained. Nicolet gave him a look before laughing again.

“You’re weird, but I like that,” she replied. He gave her a bright smile and stood up.

“I think it’s about time we returned to this little carnival. I think I heard someone else calling out your name as well no long before I happened upon you,” he said, holding out his hand to help her up. With a moment of hesitation, Nicolet took his hand stood as well. They moved back to the open area of the carnival grounds and stepped apart. “Well, It was a pleasure to meet you, tadpole. As much as I would like to spend more time with you, I have things I have to see to.” Nicolet frowned and looked to the ground in disappointment at her having to say goodbye so soon. Quickly, a finger placed itself under her chin to lift her gaze once more. Mr. Nobody gave her a small smile. “I look forward to when we meet again. Until then, farewell my little tadpole.” The nickname brought a smile to her smile.

“Goodbye, Mr. Nobody,” she replied. With that, he began to walk away towards the exit. Focused on watching him go, Nicolet was not expecting a hand grabbing onto her shoulder. She let out a small shout and spun around.

“Nicolet!” Bartholomew said in relief. “Mr. Tophat has been looking everywhere for you. Come along, he’ll be happy to know that we found you.” Without letting her respond, he began to guide her towards the back of the grounds, where the crew’s trailers all rested. Soon they arrived at Tophat’s trailer and Bartholomew knocked on the door.

“Enter!” A voice called from inside. Bartholomew quickly opened the door and pulled Nicolet inside with him. Mr. Tophat was seated at his vanity, his signature top hat and cane rested upon the couch behind him. He lifted his head from where it was resting in his hands, the exhaustion on his face was quickly replaced with delight when he saw Nicolet before him. “Nicky! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“So I’ve heard. Why?” She answered in return, glancing out of the corner of her eyes towards Bartholomew before looking at him again. 

“Why? After that nasty little incident back at the tent, how could we not look for you! We just wanted to make sure you were alright!” Tophat replied in false sincerity. Nicolet couldn’t help but rolled her eyes.

“Well, I’m ok, so now that we have that all settled, I should be going,” she gave a fake smile and tried to turn and leave, but Bartholomew held tight to her shoulder.

“Now, now. There’s no rush! It’s been so long since we last saw each other, why don’t we catch up,” Mr. Tophat smiled back. He waved for her to sit on the couch. Seeing as she had no other choice, she complied. As she sat, she studied the cabin. Everything was in the same place as they were since the last time she was here, although, now taped to the upper right of the vanity’s mirror was a picture of a smiling young woman.

“Who’s that?” She pointed to the picture. Looking up to where she was pointing, the smile on Tophat’s face fell.

“No one, no one that matters. Not anymore at least,” he said, a flash of sorrow appearing in his eyes as he looked to it. Turning to bring his attention back to her, he placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward. “Now, let’s talk about those brats from the show.”

“My friends?” She offered. The reply seemed to catch him off guard, shock showing on his face.

“Those were your friends?!?” He said. Nicolet let out a sigh.

“They were the only people who were willing to be, though I’m starting to reconsider it,” she replied.

“Friends are overrated anyway, there’s a reason I’m known as the friend of no man. No offense Bartholomew,” Tophat turned to look at his companion.

“None taken,” Bartholomew returned. Tophat smiled brightly at him before turning back to her.

“Now, do you want me to steal away one of them? I’m sure they would make a fine addition to my carnival,” he gave her a wicked smile.

“No!” She quickly replied, fear squeezing her heart. “You know I hate it when you take someone I know! I would never forgive myself if you did and I let it happen!” Mr. Tophat raised his hands to pacify her.

“Fine then, I’ll look somewhere else for a new employee. Now, let’s call your husband and see if he can come pick you up now,” he said, waving Bartholomew away so he can go complete the task.

“I’ll have to find the others and tell them I won’t be going home with them then,” Nicolet moved to go, but Tophat quickly raised his hand to stop her.

“No need. After what happened, we threw them out of the carnival. Bartholomew heard one of the girls calling her mother to come pick them up and said you were staying later here,” he said. She then sat down and nodded. “So, while we wait, how have you been? It’s been a while since you were last here.”

“Who’s fault is that? You were the one who tried to nab me and make me one of your workers,” Nicolet replied coldly.

“Fair point. I apologize, I was in a bad mood after having an argument with your father about my curse.”

“He still refusing to help lift it?” She frowned deeply when he nodded in answer.

“Claims there’s nothing he can really do. Won’t even try to see if he can help,” he admitted. Before Nicolet could reply, the door opened and Bartholomew stepped inside.

“The false prophet is on his away to pick young Nicolet up, her father is, unfortunately, busying with something in his lab,” Bartholomew said. Tophat nodded and clapped his hands.

“Well then, until next time, Nicky. Take care,” he waved her away and turned back to his mirror, busying himself with other things. Nicolet gave him and nodded moved towards the door. She paused in the doorway briefly and turned to look back at the ringmaster. 

“Perhaps, one day when I’m older, I can see if I can free you from this curse,” she offered. 

“Perhaps,” Tophat returned without looking away from his table. Nicolet nodded to herself and turned back to Bartholomew. With silent nods, the pair walked away into the night, towards the entrance where they will wait for her uncle’s arrival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Nobody finally appears, but there seems to be more to him than meets the eye! I'll have final part uploaded by tomorrow night and afterwards, I'll try to resume my Sunday upload schedule. Fingers crossed that I'll be ability to stick to it!


	6. The Tale of Mr. Nobody Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of Mr. Nobody finally comes to a close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is the finally part of the Tale of Mr. Nobody story. Sorry it took so long, it took me a bit to figure out how to reach the end of the tale.

To say Nicolet’s father was angry when she got home would be an understatement. Fortunately, it wasn’t entirely towards her that his anger was focused, but mostly towards her so-called friends. She was quick to placate him by informing him of her decision to end the friendship. She also informed him of her conversation with Mr. Tophat and his apology to her. Soon the anger was washed away once his thoughts returned to his experiments. 

It was relatively easy to end her friendship with the others, even if they didn’t remember what actually happened the night before. She found them during lunchtime the next school day and told them that they were better off not being friends with crybaby like her, that she would only make them look bad if their friendship continued. Bettie had almost voiced objection to this, but fortunately, Julie’s prideful nature had her jumping in and claiming they were going to drop her anyway, to which Bettie and the boys quickly agreed with. 

Now with more time to herself, Nicolet was free to spend her time alone around town when she didn’t want to immediately go home. It was during these times that she saw Mr. Nobody once more. He always seemed to show up when there was no one around, but distracted by the joy of having a friend, Nicolet failed to find anything strange about it. They spend their time enjoying each other’s company, swinging on the swings in the park, looking through different antique shops around town, sitting by the pond and just talking. He never once insulted her father nor made fun of her jumpy nature. They were the happiest of pairs.

But like all happy things, they must come to an end.

One day after school, Nicolet arrived home to a very familiar sight of cardboard boxes scattered around the house. Dread filled her heart as she knew there was the only explanation for it.

“We’re moving, aren’t we?” She asked once she found her father and uncle in the basement, her uncle assisting her father in packing away his lab equipment. Her uncle jumped in surprise at her voice, dropping the glass beaker he had been holding. Her father shot him a glare before turning his attention to her.

“I’m afraid so, my darling. It seems an old acquaintance has come to town and informed others of the type of experiments I’ve done in the past. Despite the fact I’m no longer that man, it's been decided that it would be best if we left,” he said in apology, though his voice lacks any true remorse for the situation.

“When are we moving?” She simply asked, knowing there was no point in arguing against the decision.

“By next week,” her father answered. Nicolet sighed and nodded.  
She turned to head back upstairs when her uncle called out to her.

“Dinner will be around 6,” he called out. Nicolet paused and turned to look at the clock that was still hanging on the far side of the room. The clock read 3:34. Thinking to herself, she looked down at her family.

“May I go spend time at the park before dinner?” She asked. Her father and uncle looked at each other for a moment before looking at her and nodding. She turned and ran upstairs. “Thank you!” She called back cheerfully as she reached the top. As she reached the front door, she could hear her uncle calling up to her.

“Stay safe!” He yelled. With a smile, she headed out the door.

As she was hoping, the park was almost vacant, only a few people could be seen in the distance. It took no time at all for Mr. Nobody to appear and join her as she sat by the pond.

“Hello, my little tadpole! How was school?” He greeted as he sat beside her.

“Good, nothing extraordinary,” she said. They looked out at the pond for a few moments before she spoke once more. “We’re moving.” Mr. Nobody looked at her stunned and with a frown.

“What! When?” He asked.

“Next week. I don’t want to, though,” she answered, looking to the ground in sadness.

“Then don’t, you can stay with me and you don’t have to worry about anything ever again!” Mr. Nobody quickly offered with a hopeful smile. Nicolet looked up at him and frowned.

“You know I can’t. I won’t abandon my family just because I don’t like their decisions,” she said back. At his fallen face, she added, “I’m going to really miss you though. You’re the greatest friend I could ever ask for.”

“Not enough to make you stay though,” he grumbled back.

“I’m won’t abandon my family,” she repeated, “and that’s the last time we’re going to talk about it, understand?” Mr. Nobody looked up quickly in surprise at the firmness of her voice. He nodded defeatedly after a moment.

“Understood,” he agreed. 

They spent their time together at the park with a tense air surrounding them. Soon, it came time for Nicolet to return home. As she stood to leave, Mr. Nobody stopped in her with a hand on her arm.

“I hate making you upset, my little tadpole. How about I make it up to you? The day before you move, how about we have a little farewell picnic by the woods?” he offered. Excited by the idea, Nicolet was quick to answer.

“That sounds wonderful! I can’t wait! I’ll see you later then!” she answered before giving him a hug goodbye and running off to return home.

The rest of the week went by quickly. Between preparing to move and school, the days passed quickly. During school, Julie and the others began to mock her even more harshly. Whispers about her family’s moving began to circulate around the school. She paid it all no mind, though, as her thoughts were solely focus on her picnic with Mr. Nobody. Soon, the fatefully day came and Nicolet woke that day with butterflies in her stomach. She went through the day as she usually up until the time for her to go to the picnic. She dressed in a nice little sundress and set off for the woods.

The woods were just off of the park, right next to a less frequented area was rarely anyone visited. Usually, she avoided the area at all costs, but she felt reassured after informing her father and uncle of her plans and with the thoughts of Mr. Nobody being by her side the entire time. As she made her way to the spot, she pasted by a pair of teenagers talking about a carnival arriving in town.

She soon arrived at the spot and was delighted to see a brilliant picnic all spread out on the grass right next to the trees. Seated beside the picnic basket was a smiling Mr. Nobody holding out a teacup to her.

“Tea? I made it myself,” he offered. She quickly took the offered cup and joined him. Taking a sip of the tea, a bright smile formed on her face as the sweetness of the tea hit her tastebuds.

“Delicious!” she said. Mr. Nobody’s smile grew wider at the praise. Together they dug into the food spread out before them. They talked as they ate, talking about everything they could, all except the events that will occur the next day. As time went on, the sun moved through the sky with it. It was an hour later that Nicolet suddenly noticed something was off. Over the span of the hour, she began to feel more and more drowsy. At first, she thought it was nothing, but now she knew something was wrong. Noticing her changed mood, Mr. Nobody let out a sigh.

“I’m really going to miss you, tadpole,” he said, placing down his food. It was then that Nicolet noticed that the whole time she was there, he never once took a drink from his own teacup. “I hate to have to lose your friendship. You’ve really left me with no choice.”

“Mr. Nobody?” Was all she could get out before darkness claimed her.

Nicolet woke up with her wrists and legs tied to a table with rope. All around her, wax figures stood, all in states of either peace or fear. Nearby, a giant pot bubbling with unknown contents over an equally giant burner. Setting up around the area was also old fashioned lanterns.

“Glad to see you’ve woken up!” a voice greeted from her right. Looking there, she saw a grinning Mr. Nobody leaning against one of the figures, a man froze in a scream. “I was just about to decide to just do it while you were asleep.”

“Mr. Nobody? What’s going on?” she asked with a frightened voice. He just smiled and strolled past her and stopped at the pot. He stirred whatever was inside before turning back to her.

“I didn’t want to do this so soon, but you’ve left me with no choice,” he answered. 

“Do what?” she asked next, almost too scared to know the answer.

“Make you part of the family, of course!” he cheered, his smile growing even wider, becoming more disturbing than welcoming. He moved to stand beside her and began to pet her hair. “We can be friends forever. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

“I don’t want this, please let me go,” she pleaded, tears filling her eyes. 

“You’re mine, my little tadpole. Don’t worry, we’re going to be so happy together, all of us!” He consoled, waving his hands around them. Looking around them, she saw that the only thing that he could be talking about was the wax figures. It was then that it dawned on Nicolet what was inside the giant pot. Fear clutching her heart, she began to struggle even more.

“Please, no, please! Let me go! Don’t do this, please! I want my dad! Please, Mr. Nobody, don’t do this!” She cried. He shushed her and moved back to the pot. He picked up a metal pitcher from a small table beside the pot and dipped inside. Pulling it back out, Nicolet watched with fear as excess wax dripped down the side. He turned and returned to her side. 

“Don’t you worry about a thing, tadpole. It will only hurt for a bit. A little pain is nothing if it means we can be a family together, forever,” he consoled and moved to pour the wax. Just then, a flash of red and black collided with him, knocking him and the pitcher away from her and to the ground. Some wax splattered onto her leg, causing her to let out a cry of pain. There were grunts and sounds of a scuffle from where he had fallen. Suddenly, a disheveled Mr. Nobody appeared along with an equally disheveled Mr. Tophat. His signature hat was gone, but his cane was clutched tightly in his hands, held like a bat toward Mr. Nobody.

“Stay away from her!” Tophat cried out, swinging his cane at him. Mr. Nobody ducked out of the way, causing the cane to hit a lantern instead. The glass shattered at the contact and oil poured out from the hole as it fell to the ground, shattering the lantern even more. As soon as the still lit wick came into contact with the oil, huge flames erupted. The men paid the fire no mind, their focus solely on each other.

“She’s mine!” Mr. Nobody cried out, running at the other. Tophat was quick to react and swung the cane once more, this time making contact with his target. Mr. Nobody was knocked to the ground, seemingly unconscious from the hit. Tophat looked at his fallen body for a moment before rushing over to her. He began to untie her knots, beginning with her arms. 

“What are you doing here? I thought you don’t come back to places you’ve just been?” She asked as he worked. Tophat gave her a charming smile.

“I never took anyone, curse made my body come back to finish the job,” he answered. Just as he finished the first knot, Nicolet watched in horror as Mr. Nobody rose from the ground and ran at her rescuer.

“Watch!” She cried. Quickly looking over his shoulder, Tophat reacted just in time to catch the other man and used his momentum to throw him away from them. Mr. Nobody continuing to move until finally crashing into another lantern and a nearby figure, causing flames to erupt not only on the ground but him as well. The figure he collided with fell into another figure, causing a chain reaction of falling figures that soon knocked into the rest of the lanterns, each one catching the ground on fire. From where he laid, Mr. Nobody let out cries of pain and terror as the flames consumed his body. Knowing they had no time to spare, Nicolet and Mr. Tophat untied the rest of her knots and getting her off the table. The moment she touched the ground, Nicolet let out a cry of pain and grasped at the leg the wax had hit. Mr. Tophat quickly lifted into his arms, knowing she wouldn’t be going nowhere with the state her leg was in. With her in his arms, he ran off towards the exit of the building. As they did, they navigated through what seemed to be a never-ending maze of wax figures. The wax on them beginning to melt from the heat of the flames, some dripping away to reveal the bright white color of human bones. Behind them, the cries of Mr. Nobody began to fade away as they moved farther and farther away.

Soon, they reached a wide-open door that led to the outside. Taking in their surroundings, Nicolet saw that all around them were trees, them being no doubt somewhere inside the woods. After taking a second to breathe the much purer air of the outside, Mr. Tophat began to make his way towards voices that were calling in the distance. It was not long before they caught sight of other people, some of them wearing police uniforms. The two were quickly rushed out of the woods and away from the nightmare they just experienced.

Nicolet and her family left the next day. The events of yesterday making them even more eager to leave. The police had finished their questioning the night before. Fortunately, the case was not that complicated, so there was nothing that would prevent them from leaving. Mr. Tophat and his carnival had vanished before the next day. Oddly enough, no child disappeared along with them.

Her uncle’s car was waiting for her along the curb at the end of the school day. As she made her way for him, she pasted by Julie and the others as they were talking by the water fountain. Bettie let out a giggle as she saw Nicolet approach and stuck out her foot. Not noticing the extended limb, she tricked and fell when her foot caught on it. She landed on the ground with a loud smack. A chorus of laughter erupted around her, with Bettie and the boys being the loudest. Nicolet shot a glare up at them as she wordlessly stood from the ground and brushed herself off. She refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry and instead walked off, though not before giving the water fountain a look, a silent command forming in her mind. As she reached the door and stepped outside, she heard cries of terror replace the mocking laughter. Behind her, the water fountain suddenly had erupted and shot water all over Julie, Bettie, Maxwell, and Connor, and only them. Nicolet smiled as she let the door close behind her, happily hopping into the backseat. Looking out the window, she watched as Julie, Bettie, Maxwell, and Connor burst out of the doors of the school and ran off somewhere else, away from the laughter of the other students. Glancing into the rearview mirror, she shared an amused look with her uncle, his knowing eyes revealing he already knew what had no doubt concurred moments before. With no words shared, the pair drove off. As they drove away, Nicolet decided that maybe being different wasn’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all next Sunday for the next chapter.


	7. Bittersweet Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassidy has ended her tale and now The Midnight Society must decided what to make of it. Afterwards, Rachel meets with an old enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time! Posting it way earlier than the last two since this was finished even before I wrote up the other two. I hope you all enjoy!

Cassidy looks around the circle after finishing her tale, smirking as she took in their amazed and enraptured faces.

“Woah,” Graham finally says, causing Cassidy to let out a laugh.

“I take it you liked the story then?” She smiles widely at them all. 

“Yeah!” Louise replies, nodding her head. “How could we not?”

“But, it doesn’t explain why Mr. Nobody is after Rachel. If he died in the fire, how could he be haunting her now?” Adam asked. Cassidy’s smile drops and she looks solemnly into the fire before answering.

“Because he didn’t die in the fire,” she admits.

“What? What you mean he didn’t die in the fire?” Graham asks in disbelief.

“Somehow, he escaped. After the fire was put out, they searched through the remains of the building. There, they found the remains of all of Mr. Nobody’s previous victims. That was all they found though. There was no body that could have belonged to Mr. Nobody. I guess there had been another exit to the place beside the one Mr. Tophat and Nicolet went through,” she explained.

“So, he’s alive?” Rachel asked. Cassidy nodded her head. “And now he’s after me.” With a sigh, Cassidy nodded her head once more. 

“But why?” Gavin asked next. Cassidy remained silent, staring into the fire. Rachel was the one to answer instead.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She replied, looking around the circle. “Mr. Nobody wants revenge on Mr. Tophat for preventing him from getting Nicolet.” She then looked at Cassidy, meeting her now sorrowful eyes. 

“And what better revenge than to go after Mr. Tophat’s beloved daughter?” Cassidy whispered, closing her eyes as tears began to fall. 

Rachel hung back as she waited for Cassidy to gather her things and begin their track home. The others had just left moments before. The shock and graveness of the situation left all of them disoriented and unable to think of what to do. It was a matter better left for the morning when all were well-rested and able to sort through their thoughts more easily. As soon as the young woman had joined her, Rachel finally spoke.

“I’ve heard this story, or a version of it, before,” she stated. Cassidy looked over at her with a raised brow. 

“Really? Where?” she calmly asked, seeming like she wasn’t surprised by this.

“When I was younger. I remember someone I knew telling me about Mr. Nobody,” Rachel explained slowly, trying focus on the faint memory she had.

“Do you remember who?” Rachel shook her head.

“No, but her name wasn’t Nicolet, though,” she replied. Rachel then looked back at her, a thought forming in her mind as her memory became clearer. “Where did you get the name Nicolet?”

“My father chose it for me. Odd name, but it suits me as my middle name,” Cassidy smiled knowingly, like she knew exactly what Rachel had been thinking. Rachel nodded and they walked in silence for a bit more. 

“Cassidy?”

“Yeah, Rachel?”

“You won’t let him get me right?”

“Never.”

Rachel carefully climbed back up the steps that led to the upstairs, having needed a quick drink of water before finally going to bed. She quietly tiptoed past her mother’s bedroom door as she headed for her room. Her gaze moved to look to the entrance to her room, causing her to freeze in place as she discovered a shadowed silhouette reclining upon her bed. 

With her heart now pounding in her chest, she slowly reached her doorway, her eyes never leaving the figure. The moon shone brightly through her window, casting light right upon the figure’s face, revealing what would be his masculine features if not for him having his face turned away from her.

“Hello, Rachel,” the figure greeted with a very familiar voice. Her heart jumped into her throat as he spoke. “Have fun telling scary stories with your friends?” The man upon her bed let out a laugh when she didn’t answer. “Cassidy is quite the storyteller isn’t she?” He finally turned his face towards her, giving her a devious smile as he took in her shocked and fearful face. “What? Scorpion got your tongue?”

“Are you really him?” She finally asked. Mr. Tophat let out a laugh. 

“Who else would I be?” He asked in return. Rachel slowly moved closer to the edge of the bed.

“Mr. Nobody?” She offered. The smile on his face disappeared as his expression twisted into anger and hate.

“That no good-,” he quickly cut himself off as he was remembered who he was with. “Why can’t he just do us all a favor and die already, as he should have been years ago,” he hissed, looking off into the distance. When his eyes moved back to her, the anger in them was replaced with sorrow. “I’m sorry that you have to suffer yet again for my mistakes, sweetie.” The nickname caused a wave of emotions to wash over her. She quickly closed the distance between her and the bed, throwing herself onto the surface and buried her face into the crook of his neck, wrapping her arms around his chest. He quickly returned the hug, squeezing her tight in response.

“Am I dreaming?” She whispered into his neck. He let out a sad laugh.

“That’s for you to decide,” he answered. “In the meantime, I think it’s about time you slept, you had a long day.”

“Will you still be here in the morning?” The silence was deafening during the few moments he took to answer.

“No.” 

“Will you stay with me until then?” 

“There’s no place I would rather be.”

Rachel opened her eyes to the light of the sun streaming into her room. Slowly sitting up, she looked down at the empty space beside her. With a pang of sadness in her heart, she began to write off last night’s incident as being nothing more than a dream. As she trailed her gaze around her room, she saw something that made any idea of it not being real go out of the window. 

There, sitting up on her desk was an origami scorpion. Moving out of her bed and to the desk, she carefully picked up the creation, smiling at she saw a piece of paper. Written upon it in familiar handwriting was the short inscription, “Until we can be together again. -TH”. With a smile on her face and hope in her heart, Rachel placed the scorpion back onto her desk and left her room to begin her day. 

Watching from they sat upon her window sill, a group of scorpions stared after her. As she disappeared through the doorway, the group all began to scurry away, hopping off of the roof and disappearing into the grass below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Tophat has finally made his appearance! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter with its little surprises. I'll see you all next week with the next chapter!


	8. New Faces and Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After having a nice night's rest, Rachel meets faces new and old and learns more about her father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time! Hope you all enjoy!

Rachel could hear her mother talking outside as she reached the downstairs. Quickly pouring herself some cereal for breakfast, she picked her bowl and went to the door to see who she was talking with. 

Outside, she saw that it wasn’t just her mother there, but also Gavin’s dad as well along with a gentleman she didn’t recognize. The man had mostly white hair with only a few black strands revealing his original hair color. He had on a suit that was a tad bit old fashioned but seemed to suit him well. He was the first one to notice her.

“Hello there, my dear!” he greeted, giving her a bright smile. It was then that her mother and Gavin’s father noticed her.

“Morning, Rachel!” Gavin’s father greeted. 

“Good morning, sweetie. This is Mr. Wickham, he just moved into the house across the street,” her mother said, waving toward the man.

“Eli Wickham, at your service,” Mr. Wickham said, holding out his hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Wickham,” Rachel nodded her head and looked down at his hand and there to her hands occupied by holding her bowl. Looking back up, she saw that he realized his mistake and took back his hand.

“So, Mr. Wickham, do you have any children?” Her mother jumped in, trying to shift their attention. Mr. Wickham gave her a small sad smile.

“I did, but they’re all gone now,” he answered. Both parents gave him a look of sympathy. 

“I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine what that must be like,” her mother said. Mr. Wickham nodded his thanks.

“That was years ago, I must live happily now, for their sake,” he gave her a smile. Rachel took a bite of her food as she watched the exchange, unsure what she could say or add. Instead, a thought pooped into her mind.

“Hey, mom? Do you might if I go hang out with the others today? We’re going to show Cassidy around town,” she said, turning to look at her mother. Something flashed through Mr. Wickham’s eyes at the mention of Cassidy’s name, but it was so quick, that Rachel didn’t have the chance to figure out what the look was.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, Rachel. I hope you kids have fun,” her mother gave her a smile, which she returned before heading back inside. As she walked back to the kitchen counter, her phone began to ring. Quickly picking it up, she saw it was Louise calling.

“Hey, Louise. What’s up?” she asked as she answered the call.

“Did you ask your mom for permission to hang out yet?” Louise quickly asked, urgency in her voice. Rachel frowned.

“Yeah, she just gave me the okay for it. Why? Is something going on?” She could hear Louise mutter something to someone else in the background.

“Maybe, we’re not sure yet. Just get dressed quickly, we’re going to be on our way to pick up you and Gavin up soon.”

“Wait, why?” Rachel asked though she was already heading for her room to change out of her pajamas.

“The Carnival of Doom is back in town.”

The group of friends all sat on their bikes and stared up at the menacing sign that signified the entrance to the Carnival of Doom. None dared to speak, unable to think of what to say that would make them all feel better. It looked the same way as it did the last time they saw it, though all the rides were shut down since it had not yet opened. The spell over them broke as the sound of another set of wheels came from behind them. They all turned to look over their shoulders to Cassidy on her own bike heading their way. She came to a stop right next to Adam at the very end and looked up at the sign.

“This can’t be good,” she said. They all nodded in agreement. “Well, no use in just standing here and doing nothing. Let’s see why they’re back.” With that, she got off her bike and began to make her way to the entrance. The group stared a look before scrambling off their own bikes and hurrying after her.

“The last time someone entered the carnival before it was open, they got hypnotized and kidnapped by Mr. Tophat. What’s to say it won’t happen again to us?” Graham asked as they caught up to her, Adam nodded his agreement as he was that very someone from last time.

“Seeing as Rachel’s already defeated Mr. Tophat, I doubt they have the power or interest to do that again,” Cassidy countered. Before anyone else could object, they reached the ticket booth. The ticket-taker clown was at the booth, lounging on the table with his back to one of the walls and “IT” by Stephen King in his hands. His face turned into a shocked smile as he looked up from his book and saw Cassidy and the group standing before him.

“Cassidy! What are you doing here?” he exclaimed, hopping down from the counter to stand inside the booth. Cassidy gave him a half-smile.

“Could ask you the same thing, Horace. Where’s Bartholomew?” She replied. Akiko looked over at Rachel and mouthed "Horace?" to them. Rachel just gave a shrug as the others all had confused looks on their faces.

“He’s in the back, making sure everything’s set upright and ready for tonight’s opening,” Horace replied, jerking her thumb in the direction of the back area. Cassidy nodded her thanks and began to move to leave when the clown grabbed her arm.  
“Hey! Like I said, tonight’s our opening night. You get in if you present these at the entrance,” he pulled out from under the counter a handful of slips of paper and held them out. Each taking one, they saw that the slips of paper were the “free-entry” tickets they had gotten before. “Join us tonight, it’ll be fun, and this time you don’t need to worry about any evil ringleaders trying to kill you.” He gave them a smirk before letting Cassidy’s arm go. Cassidy nodded before walking away once more, this time, he didn’t stop her. Rachel and the others followed behind. “See you all tonight!” They heard him call as they walked away.

It didn’t take long for them to find Bartholomew. He was with some of the other workers, setting up one of the tents. They waited in silence as they watched them pitch the tent. It wasn’t until the tent was finally up that Bartholomew noticed his audience.

“Rachel and friends!” He greeted with a smile, before noticing Cassidy. The smile dropped in shock. “Cassidy! You’re back! What are you doing here?” 

“Could ask you the same thing? What are you guys doing back in town? No trouble I hope,” Cassidy replied, folding her arms infant of her. Bartholomew shook his head.

“None of the sort. In fact, it’s the exact opposite, I do believe,” he answered. “Come, let’s all talk somewhere more private.” He waved them along to follow him as he began to walk further into the back. They soon reached Mr. Tophat’s old cabin and all stepped inside. From what Rachel could tell, the cabin was the exact same as it had been since the last time she saw it, on the night of Mr. Tophat’s defeat. Bartholomew sat upon the chair in front of the vanity. Rachel, Gavin, and Adam all sat on the couch. Akiko, Louise, Graham, and Cassidy all remained standing, with Graham slightly hiding behind Akiko and Louise. 

“So, we’re in private. Now, what are you doing here?” Cassidy asked, leaning against the wall beside the couch. Bartholomew let out a sigh.

“We’re here because he wants us here,” Bartholomew answered. 

“Who wants you here?” Graham asked with a confused frown.

“The same man who’s call we’ve been answering since the beginning,” Bartholomew answered, looking at Rachel as she quickly realized the answer.

“My father,” she gasped. Bartholomew nodded. “But he’s dead, I killed him didn’t I?” The man shrugged.

“That, I’m uncertain of. All I know is that he’s calling us. Though, I have no idea what for,” he replied.

“Mr. Nobody,” Cassidy stated. Bartholomew whipped his head to look at her at the name, anger and confusion sparking in his eyes. “Mr. Nobody’s after Rachel. That’s why you're here, to help protect her, I bet.” 

“Is that true?” Bartholomew looked back at Rachel. Rachel nodded her head. Bartholomew whispered a curse under his breath, looking away to somewhere unknown before looking at the group again. “That certainly explains why we’re here, though I wish it wasn’t. Mr. Nobody is a dangerous man from what I’ve heard about him. If he really is back, you all must be careful. That man will stop at nothing to get what he wants.”

“And what he wants is revenge,” Cassidy hissed. At the man’s confused eyebrow raise, she quickly explained. “For Tophat preventing him from getting Nicolet all those years ago.” Bartholomew’s brow furrowed in confusion at the mention of Nicolet, but before he could say anything, Louise quickly jumped in.

“If you’re still hearing the call of Mr. Tophat, could that mean he’s still alive?” She asked. Bartholomew looked at her and opened and closed his mouth as he thought over the question. 

“Perhaps, but I’m uncertain of how we could learn the answer short of Marcus appearing before us himself,” Bartholomew answered. They all thought over the question before Cassidy finally spoke. 

“We could always ask the man who cursed Mr. Tophat in the first place,” she suggested. The group all looked at each other before looking back at her. 

“That could work,” Akiko said with a shrug.

Cassidy and the gang found themselves standing in front of Sardo’s Magic Mansion. Bartholomew had to stay behind at carnival in order to finish in the set up of the carnival, much to his own disappointment. Though, Rachel promised they would tell him anything they might learn the next time they saw the man. Let out a sigh, Akiko turned to look at Cassidy.

“What are we doing?” she asked.

“We need to talk to the man who cursed Rachel’s father,” Cassidy answered, keeping her gaze on the store.

“And we’re going to find him here?” Akiko asked in disbelief.

“Yep,” Cassidy simply said before heading inside, the group quickly following behind. The store was as empty as it was the first time they were there. Cassidy made her way straight for the curtain and passed through it. The children all stopped at the front and counter and watched the curtain. Cassidy’s head popped out from behind the curtains a second later. “You guys coming or what?” she asked with a raised brow before disappearing behind the curtain once more. Sharing a look, the group quickly filed through the curtain. Behind it was a storage area full of cardboard boxed with different objects inside and other items too big to go inside the boxes scattered across the room. Cassidy made her way along a clear path in between the objects and passed through another door away. The children quickly followed behind her and saw that the doorway was the entrance to a basement below the shop. As they reached the bottom, they saw that below the shop was a makeshift laboratory. Bubbling beakers and tubes were placed all around on tables and in the center of all, was a man. Cassidy raised her hand to signal them to stay where they were as she approached the man.

“Dad?” she called out. The man jumped in surprise at the sudden voice, fumbling with whatever was in his hand. He whipped around, ready to yell at his intruder, but the anger melted off his face the moment he saw that it was Cassidy. 

“Cassidy, darling! Sardo said you weren’t going to be until later!” he smiled at her. He quickly placed the object in his hands down and took off his goggles, moving to give his daughter a hug. The group all gasped when they saw the face of the man. 

“You!” they cried. Cassidy and the man both jumped and turned to face the group. 

“You’re that weird guy from the carnival, the one who insisted he wasn’t a nutbag!” Adam cried as he pointed to the man. The man opened his mouth to say something, but Rachel jumped in first.

“You’re the one who cursed my father! You said that when we met at the carnival!” She cried, suddenly remembering their conversation from that night. The others all made sounds of their agreement. Cassidy shot her father a glare. 

“Wait, he’s your father? Your dad’s the one who cursed Mr. Tophat?” Gavin frowned. “Is there anything else we should know about?”

“There is, but it’s better we focus on one thing at a thing. I promise once this is all over, I’ll explain everything to you guys later,” Cassidy raise her hands to placate them before they could speak and turned back to her father. “We need to talk about Marcus and the curse.” 

“Ah,” her father said, an ashamed look appearing on his face at the name. “I suppose before I say anything, I should properly introduce myself. My name is Dr. Vink.”

“Dr. Wink?” Adam asked.

“Vink!” Cassidy and Dr. Vink corrected in unison. 

“With a va-va-va,” Dr. Vink circled his hand in sync with the sound. “Now, before we begin, let’s go somewhere more comfortable. He waved them all to follow him over to another section of the basement where there were chairs all scattered about. One by one each person sat until finally everyone was settled in. “Now before we begin, are there any questions?” They all shook their heads.

“Stop stalling, father,” Cassidy gently scolded.

“Very well then, onto the tale,” Dr. Vink agreed with a sigh. “Well, it was around the early ’40s, back when I was a not-so-good man and I decided to go to a carnival that had come into town. It called itself the “Carnival of Doom”. Quite innovative for the time. Well, the owner of the carnival, a man known as Marcus Cochran, prided himself with his ability to scare the living daylights out of people. Had the reputation of being the “Master of Fear”. As I stated before, I was always learning for new experiments, and I found one in the form of Mr. Cochran. So, I managed to speak with him and made a bet with him. I would return to the carnival the next day and if he was able to scare before the sun rose, I would give him whatever he so desired, no matter what it was. If he failed, I could do whatever I want in return. I left him to think it over and decided if he was interested in this deal or not. I returned the next day and there he was at the entrance, wish at hand, so to speak. And so, he went off, pulling every trick he could think of to try and trick me. Clowns, zombies, monsters, bugs, heights, you name it, he tried it. Nothing worked. It wasn’t until the sun finally came up once more did he admit defeat. And as part of the deal, I did what I wanted, and I decided to curse him.

“As it was the fear from his patrons that he seemed to feed on, it would be his patrons’ fear that would keep him alive for all of eternity. And if he tried to resist feeding on their fear, his body would betray him and force him to feed, doing whatever was necessary to have it. His cane, which I created for him, would give him the power to do so, the limits only being that of his imagination. The curse would only be broken when a very special child, one who wasn’t affected by the amnesia spell, arrives at the carnival and undoes what was done.”

“And that child is Rachel, right?” Graham asked as Vink finished his tale. Vink smiled and nodded.

“I believe so. She and Cassidy are the only children he ever met who were able to remember him the next day,” he agreed.

“What about my mom? Didn’t she remember him?” Rachel asked next.

“Well, he actually had to take special means to help her remember, had to use a special potion so that she wouldn’t be immediately affected by the curse,” he admitted. 

“So, Rachel defeated him and he turned into a bunch of scorpions, so what? He’s now dead?” Akiko asked. Vink frowned at the question.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I never thought about it back then,” he answered.

“So, there’s a possibility he’s alive then?” Rachel asked hesitantly. Vink paused in thought before finally answering.

“I suppose so. Has there been anything that makes you think he might be?” He asked, turned to face them all.

“There’s been scorpions showing up everywhere in town, recently. They seem to be attracted to Rachel little,” Graham pointed out. Dr. Vink nodded.

“Interesting, anything else?” He asked. All but Rachel shook their heads, causing attention to focus on her. Hesitating for a moment, she spoke.

“I saw him last night, in my room,” she explained.

“What? Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” Akiko asked. Rachel shook her head.

“I’m certain. He was gone by the time I woke up, but he left me an origami scorpion and a note on my desk,” she replied. Dr. Vink raised his brows and tilted his head.

“Well, then, I suppose that it is quite likely he is still alive,” he admits.

“Is there a way to get him back completely then?” Louise asks, leaning forward in her seat.

“Hm. You said that when you shattered his cane, he turned into scorpions, correct?” he asks, pointing to Rachel, who nods her head. “Then, to get him back, we would need to use some kind of binding spell. One that would bring the pieces of Cochran, the scorpions, back together again and turn them back into him.”

“Can you make it?” Graham asks, engrossed by the information. Dr. Vink nods his head.

“It will take me a bit to make it, but with Cassidy’s help, I’m sure we’ll have it done in no time,” he smiles, looking towards Cassidy who only glares at him.

“You’re lucky that Rachel and Marcus are involved or else I would have nothing to do with this stuff,” she hisses. At the group’s confused looks, she huffed. “I will never forgive my father for all the bad things he’s done to people in the name of science. So many suffered for it.”

“And you have every right to,” Dr. Vink consoled, patting her knee. He let stood up and moved to his lab tables. “Now, it will take a bit, so you kids ran along until then.” With mutters of “goodbyes”, the children all went to the stairs as Cassidy moved to help her father with his work. Pausing on the landing as the others left, Rachel looked back to the pair.

“The wish you would have granted if my father had won, what would it have been. He mentioned back at the carnival that it was a stupid wish that he had forgotten. Do you remember it?” she asked. Dr. Vink froze and looked to Cassidy in sadness before answering. 

“The one thing he wanted more than anything in the world was a child of his own,” he whispered before turning and returning to his work. Cassidy looked to her father in shock before looking back at Rachel. Without any more words, Rachel left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was a fun chapter. I'll see you all next week with the next installment. Until then, take care!


	9. The Nightmare Comes Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel once more dreams before heading to the Carnival of Doom in hopes of bringing Mr. Tophat back and stopping Mr. Nobody once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time!

The first thing Rachel did when she returned home was that she gave her mother a hug. Hannah Carpenter was surprised by the surprising action of her daughter, but fully welcomed the show of affection.

“Was there a reason you did that or did you just felt like it,” she asked once the hug ended. Rachel just shrugged her shoulders and smiled slightly.

“Just felt like it,” she said.

“Ok, then. Did you kids have fun with Cassidy?” her mother asked returning to the task she had been doing before her daughter’s return, which was chopping up vegetables in preparation for dinner. 

“Yeah, we met her father and found out that a carnival is in town, too,” Rachel answered, sitting down at one of the chairs at the island to watch her mother work. 

“Ooooh, a carnival?” Her mother smiled. “How exciting.”

“Yeah. It’s actually the same carnival as the one we went to before, a few months back.”

“Really?” Her mother paused in her chopping and turned to look at her. “The one where you got that top hat from the owner?”

“Yep,” Rachel smiled back, remembering that night.

“Maybe I should go with you, this time, and meet the owner myself.” Rachel’s smile vanished at the suggestion.

“Actually, he’s not going to be there. He had to go away for a while, so he gave me his top hat to take care of for him in the meantime,” she answered with a sad shrug. Her mother pouted a little before returning to her work.

“What a shame, he sounded like a nice man, to give away his top hat to you and everything.” Rachel once more shrugged.

“Yeah, but I’m sure the carnival will be fun regardless of his absence.”

“Very well, then. Dinner’s going to be in a bit. So in the meantime, you can go do whatever you want why I work on it, okay?” Her mother gave her a smile to which Rachel nodded back and left to go to her room and occupy herself while waiting. 

Rachel sat down at her desk and pulled out her favorite black marker. With a brief thought of how unusually warm her room was feeling, she began to draw. With thoughts of her father and his carnival in her mind, it came to no surprise that her drawing was that of him standing with the carnival going on behind him. Unlike her earlier drawings of him, there was no malicious air about him, but instead a more welcoming one. Smiling down at her creation, Rachel’s thoughts were once more brought back to how uncomfortably warm it was. It was only when she heard the crackle of flames that she realized something was terribly wrong.

Looking away from her drawing, Rachel saw that she was no longer in her room nor in her house. She was once more in the center of the burning wax mannequin maze. She jumped up from her seat in shock and fear at the realization. Behind her, a man laughed. 

“Hello, Rachel,” the voice hissed. Spinning around, she was greeted by the horrifying sign of Mr. Nobody grinning over at her, standing in the spot where her desk and chair once were. “It’s so wonderful to see you again!”

“You’re not real. This is only a dream,” Rachel whispered back, more to herself than to him. The edges of his smile twitch as Mr. Nobody tried to hurt his anger over her once again refusing to greet him back.

“I assure you, Rachel, I am most definitely real. That mark on her arm proves it,” he said back. Rachel’s hand flew to her arm, grabbing onto the spot of the aforementioned mark. “But if you don’t believe me, I can easily give you another one, just hold still.” His voice became more graveled as he said the last part. Rachel let out a scream as he lunged for her. Suddenly, a hand grabbed onto Mr. Nobody’s other arm and pulled him away from her, causing his outstretched fingertips to miss her by a few centimeters. Appearing out of nowhere from behind him, an angry-looking Mr. Tophat glared at Mr. Nobody with his own fire in his eyes.

“Get away her!” He cried as he threw Mr. Nobody away from her and to the ground, momentarily stunning him. With the threaten stalled, for the time being, Mr. Tophat looked back at Rachel with concern in his eyes. “Wake up, Rachel! You need to wake up and get my cane. It’s the only way for the spell to work.” Suddenly, he grabs her arms and pushes her to the ground. As she fell, she could see Mr. Nobody rising once more and letting out a cry of frustration. Then she blinked her eyes.

Rachel’s back hit the back of her chair as she sat straight up at her desk. She was once more in her room. Looking down at her desk, she saw that the edges of her drawing of Mr. Tophat were tinted and burnt, obviously effected by the heat of the flames that had been burning in her dreams. Rachel was brought out of her confused trance as her phone began to buzz with an incoming call. Answering it, she put it to her ear.

“Hello?” she hesitantly said.

“Rachel!” Cassidy’s voice answered from the other end. “Good news, the spell's almost done. We just need to find something that has a special connection with Marcus.” 

“Like his cane?” she suggested, remembering her father’s words in her dream.

“That would most definitely work. Any idea where we would find it?” Thinking back, Rachel tried to remember the last time she saw it.

“It should still be at the carnival. It was left in the mirror maze after I smashed it and stopped Mr. Tophat,” she answered. “We can see if Bartholomew might have retrieved it tonight at the carnival.”

“Good idea. I’ll see you guys there when the spell’s finished,” Cassidy said before hanging up. Rachel stared down at the phone before finally putting it down and setting off to find something else to do until it was time to leave.

It was odd to walk into the Carnival of Doom without the feeling of utter dread hanging over them. Arriving at the ticket booth, Horace flashed them a genuinely friendly smile as they handed over their tickets before waving them through. As they moved through the grounds, each worker they passed waved to them as though they were old friends. Now that the threat of the carnival being ruined is over, the workers had no need to view Rachel and her friends as the enemy. Looking around, Rachel caught a brief glance of Mr. Wickham moving among the other patrons. Catching his eye, he gave them a wave, to which both she and Gavin returned.

The opening show was even stranger, the absence of Mr. Tophat causing a strange pang in Rachel’s heart. Afterward, they met once more with Bartholomew, finding them conversing with other workers in the employee area, and told him everything that happened earlier that day. He listened diligently as they told him about meeting Dr. Vink, him telling them the tale of how Mr. Tophat came to be, and finally, the spell that could bring him back. He waited until they were finally done before he spoke.

“So, that’s it? Once the spell is complete, Marcus will be back?” he asked.

“Actually,” Rachel began, “Cassidy says we need one more thing in order to get him back. We need something of his that he had a strong attachment to. So, do you know where his cane is?”

“The last I saw it, it was in Marcus’s cabin, where he left it for you,” Bartholomew frowned. The other workers nodded their agreement.

“So, it’s still in the mirror maze, where I left it after I..,” Rachel trailed off, suddenly unable to finish the sentence in the presence of those who truly knew the man behind the monster.

“It would appear so. Unfortunately, I cannot help you with navigating the maze, only you and your father ever entered it often enough to know your way around,” Bartholomew apologized. Before anyone could speak further, the sound of footsteps approached them. Cassidy skidded to a stop before them. 

“Did you get the cane yet?” she asked quickly, out of breath.

“No, it’s still in the maze,” Louise answered.

“We need to get it now,” Cassidy urged, causing everyone to frown in confusion.

“Why? What’s going on?” Rachel asked. 

“It’s Mr. Nobody, it seems he’s losing his patience. He just tried to grab me from the darkness when I was walking through one of the shop’s halls,” Cassidy answered. Rachel looked over at the others in fear and concern before nodding.

“Ok, then let’s get that cane,” Rachel said, then turned to her friends. “You guys stay here with Bartholomew and the others and keep an eye out for Mr. Nobody while Cassidy and I head through the mirror maze and get the cane.” At the others’ nods, Rachel turned back to Cassidy. “Let’s go.”

Rachel and Cassidy ran quickly through the grounds, weaving their way through the patrons until they finally returned to Mr. Tophat’s cabin one more. Heading inside, they found the cabin empty and the same as it was earlier that day. Moving until they were standing in front of the hidden entrance, it was only then that they realized one fatally flaw in their plan. 

“The coin,” Rachel whispered. She looked back at Cassidy, who only shook her head. The pair then began to search through the cabin, looking through all the drawers and chests in search of the unique golden object. After searching through the whole place, they found that the coin was nowhere to be found. 

“What now?” Cassidy asked in defeat. Rachel shrugged and sat on the chair in front of the vanity. Looking into the mirror to think, she thought back to how she last found the coin. Remembering the moment, Rachel quickly began to search her pockets. It was when she put her hand in the hear coat pocket that she felt the familiar object in it. Pulling it out, Rachel smiled wide as she held the scorpion and skull coin in her hand. Placing it once more in the slot in the wall, the cabin began to rumble once more as the entrance slid down to reveal the hidden area behind it. Smiling back at Cassidy once more, she made her way inside.

Her feet seemed to rely on muscle memory as they made their way through the twisting and winding halls of the mirror maze. Finally, Rachel found herself standing in the familiar hallway once more, where she had once defeated her father and found the hidden room behind the end of the hall. The mirrors in the hall were still shattered, their remains laid scattered on the ground. The door to her childhood room also rested open, the ever-present light of the room shining into the hall and reflecting on the single golden object that hinted at the truth of what had occurred here. Slowly approaching the shattered cane, Rachel carefully picked up the object. Cassidy joined her side and pulled from her bag a small vial filled with a strange orange liquid. She uncorked the vial and held it over the head of the cane before she poured its contents onto it. The liquid seemed to have been caught in some invisible space as Cassidy began to mumble unintelligible words. As the vial emptied, the liquid-filled more and more of the space at the top until finally, it solidified into a new amber top-piece. After a moment, the pair looked around, feeling as though nothing had truly changed outside of the cane now being repaired. Looking back at each other, Cassidy shrugged as Rachel bit her lip, trying to think of what she could do next, an idea popped into her head. Taking a step back, Rachel took hold of the cane with both hands before pounding it to the ground.

The effect was instantaneous as the air rippled around the point of contact. A sound wave echoed from it, moved out from it and into the distance. Around them, the mirror shards began to shake and floated into the air, forming back into whole mirrors that hung upon the walls. Looking down at the amber head, Rachel saw it once more glowed with a faint electric current, showing the spell had worked. Looking back up at each other, Cassidy and Rachel shared relieved smiles before a sudden laugh caused them to vanish. Spinning around to face the end mirror, Rachel’s eyes widened in fear as she saw none other than Mr. Nobody grinning back at them.

“Nice trick. My turn,” he said. From behind her, Cassidy let out a cut-off scream. Looking back at her, Rachel found Cassidy was now gone, leaving her alone in the hall. Looking back at the mirror, she saw in horror as all the mirrors in the hall now held an image of a grinning Mr. Nobody. Wasting no time, Rachel spun around and fled the hall, the echoes of his laughter followed behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, cliffhanger! See you all next week!


	10. Chapter 10: Villain Unmasked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Rachel runs through the halls of the mirror maze, she learns the truth of Mr. Nobody's identity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time! I hope you all are ready.

As Rachel made her way through the maze, her phone began to ring. Pulling it out to see who it was, Akiko’s name shines back at her. Answering the call, she quickly puts it to her ear. 

“Hello?” She answered.

“Rachel!” Akiko cried.

“Yeah, what’s up?” She replied.

“We know who Mr. Nobody is!” Akiko began. “Louise and I looked up what we could about Mr. Nobody and we found an article about the incident from Cassidy’s story!”

“Really? What happened?” Rachel asked.

“Well, we looked more into what we could about Mr. Nobody. Turns out he preyed on people who had either had very little friends or no friends at all. He would pretend to be their friend for a few weeks before snatching them and turning them into his wax puppets. Not only that, but stories involving him date back to the colonial times.”

“Colonial?” Rachel paused in her trek.

“Yeah, apparently the story was that he was once a candle maker who developed a fascination with wax encased things. Says it wasn’t until his neighbors noticed people disappearing that he was finally caught. They supposedly set his home on fire with him in it to stop him. But the problem was, he was said to have made a deal with the devil, because of course, the devil had to be involved, in order to continue his work.” Akiko finally finished.

“So, he’s been turning people into wax figures ever since?” Rachel asked. She began her walk once more. 

“Yeah. The stories even say what his real name is,” Louise added in, apparently present on the other side of the phone. In the background, she heard someone breathe in sharply.

“Really? What is it?” She asked.

“Rachel!” Gavin cried out from the other side. “It’s Wickham! Mr. Nobody’s real name is Eli Wickham!” Rachel let out a gasp. Before she could say anything else, something collides with the back of her head and darkness overtakes her.

When she opened her eyes, Rachel finds herself laying on a table, her arms and legs tied up by ropes that were attached to the surface. With all her might, she began to struggle, trying to break free.

“I wouldn’t bother trying to break free. I’ve had many years of practice to make sure that the only one who’s undoing those knots is me,” Mr. Wickham’s voice called out from her left. She turned her head to see him standing smugly nearby against another table. “So happy you could finally join us. Did you have a nice nap, my dear?” 

“You’re Mr. Nobody,” she simply says. He let out a laugh and nodded his head.

“At your service!” He mockingly bowed. “And you’re that no good Mr. Tophat’s daughter. Who should have kept himself out of things that didn’t concern him! He took my tadpole away from me!” He hissed, dropping his friendly voice for one deeper and inhuman. “She was mine to have, not his! He had plenty of children to have instead!”

“Except that he saw me first!” another voice called out from Mr. Nobody’s left. Both him and Rachel turned their heads, Rachel having to lift her’s to see above her feet, towards the voice. There, tied in a similar fashion to Rachel was nothing other than Cassidy herself. She glared daggers towards Mr. Nobody from where she laid. “He knew me long before you ever came into the picture and would have stolen me long before you ever could if not for my father!” 

“Yes, but you were mine!” Mr. Nobody hissed back, stalking closer towards her. He stopped on the side where her head rested, placing his hands on each side of her head to lean down to look at her. “I was the one who got to you first, so you were mine to have! We could have been so happy together, all of us could have been happy together!” He stood upright and waved his hand around them. Looking around, Rachel finally noticed the partially melted figures of wax mannequins surrounding them. “And he stole you, he ruined everything!”

“Marcus saved me! I didn’t want to become part of your sick collection! I didn’t want you!” Cassidy shouted back. “Now, let me and Rachel go!” 

“Not going to happen, my little tadpole,” he said in a sickeningly sweet voice. “I have big plans for you and Tophat’s little spawn.” He moved away from the table and returned to his table, playing with something that was on it. 

“What are you going to do with us?” Rachel asked after a moment. Mr. Nobody shot a glance over his shoulder to her before turned back to his work. 

“Well, my dear. Seeing as your father prevented me from making Cassidy part of my collection, it’s only fair that along with finishing where I left off, I make you part of it as well! After all, he stole what belonged to me, so I’ll just steal what belonged to himself right back!” He answered. It was then that Rachel saw what he was playing with. A boiling pot of melted wax. Seeing her horrified gaze, he smiled even more wickedly. 

“I would say that it won’t hurt and that it would be quick, but I would be lying on both accounts. I’m going to enjoy making you suffer for what your father has done,” he cooed. This caused Cassidy to let out sounds of frustration and make her struggle even more. Mr. Nobody just let out a laugh and turned back to the pot. As he continued to work, Rachel took a look at the area around her. Everywhere she looked, there were wax figures. There were some there were completely covered in wax and some that had the wax partially melted from them. Of the ones who were partially melted, the melted wax revealed the bones of the people who were trapped inside it. As her gaze circled around, she saw the flicker of movement in between figures in the distance. Doing a double-take, she tried to find the movement again. A few feet away she saw another flicker of movement from the corner of her eye. More and more she saw movement making its way closer and closer to where they were, but no matter how much she tried, she could see what was making its way towards them.

The sound of shoes grinding the ground as they spun brought Rachel’s attention back to Mr. Nobody as he spun around and made his way towards her with a ladle that dripped hardened wax. He stopped by her side and studied her.

“Now tell me, my dear. Which one should I start with? Your left leg or your right one?” he asked, tapping the ladle on each leg as he spoke. Fortunately, the wax on the ladle had cooled enough that it didn’t burn as it made contact with her skin, but she never the less was uncomfortable with the contact.

“Get away from her!” Cassidy called out from behind them.

“And who’s going to make me? You?” he laughed without turning his head, continuing to look at Rachel as he tried to decide on his process.

“No, but he certainly can!” Cassidy replied, causing Mr. Nobody and Rachel to both finally look in her direction. Right next to where Cassidy laid was hundreds of scorpions emerging from behind the rows of wax figures and coming together to form a massive pile. More and more came together and began to shift the top higher and higher into the air until it finally stood as tall as Mr. Nobody. Soon flashes of another object began to appear from inside the mass and more and more scorpions began to disappear from sight, as though they were merging into the object underneath. Finally, moments later, only one scorpion remained on the now fully formed human figure. Three pairs of eyes watched with differing emotions as the last scorpion crawled its way up the person's torso and disappeared into their open mouth. The mouth prompt shut and their eyes flow open and looked directly at Mr. Nobody. 

“Miss me?” Mr. Tophat asked with a feral grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Guess who's back! Back again! Tophat's back! Tell a friend!~ Sorry, couldn't resist. Well, I'll see you all next week for the exciting next installment. Until then, take care!


	11. The End of Mr. Nobody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Mr. Tophat finally back, the final showdown between the gang and Mr. Nobody has begun. Who will win this deadly battle?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Update time! Fair Warning, this chapter's a bit violent, so if anyone if triggered by it, I advise skipping to the end and then scrolling back up until you see the word SAFE. 
> 
> TW for violence and someone having their head destroyed.

Mr. Tophat stood tall with a confident and dangerous air around him. Before anyone could say a thing, he ran up towards Mr. Nobody clocked him right in the face with a fist. The punch sent Mr. Nobody reeling backward and onto to his back. Knowing it would take him a moment to recover from the attack, Mr. Tophat turned to his daughter and made quick work of one of her rope ties before moving back to Cassidy to do the same. 

“I don’t have much time before he’s back up so you girls need to get these ropes off by yourselves. Now, where’s my cane?” Mr. Tophat spoke as he worked on the rope around Cassidy’s left wrist. As he worked, Rachel untied the other rope restraining her other arm. 

“By the pot, leaning on the right side of the table,” Cassidy replied, quickly setting work on her wrist the moment she got her hand free. A groan drew all three’s attention back to their enemy, who had just begun to managed roll over onto his hands and knees. Knowing he had only seconds left before Mr. Nobody was back in the game, Mr. Tophat ran over to the table and retrieved his cane from the exact spot as Cassidy had mentioned. Just as Mr. Nobody managed to get himself into a kneeling position, Mr. Tophat delivered another blow to the man’s face, swinging his cane as though it were a baseball bat.

“That’s for going after my daughter!” he growled. Rachel paused in the untying of her leg to let out a cheer at the action, causing her father to smirk in satisfaction. In the distance, a group of voices could be heard. “I believe that would be the calvary, girls.” With his attention drawn away, Mr. Tophat was unprepared for Mr. Nobody to collide into his, sending both men to the floor. Seemingly having heard the sounds both men let out, the group of voices began to move closer to them. Cassidy made quick work of her last rope before running over to Rachel to help with her own last rope knot. Pulling her off the table, Cassidy positioned the younger girl behind her as they focused on the fight at hand. 

Mr. Nobody had managed to get on top of Mr. Tophat and was now attempting to try to strangle him, smiling gleefully down at the other man as he struggled to breathe. Mr. Tophat had one hand around one of Mr. Nobody’s wrist as the other was grasping around to get ahold of his cane that was laying only a few inches away from his searching hand. Knowing he was fighting a losing battle, Cassidy seemed to figure out a way to help.

“Get him, Marcus!” She cried out. This successfully distracted Mr. Nobody as he turned to look back at her with intense jealousy and causing his grip to loose as a result. This gave Mr. Tophat the chance he needed to look over at his cane and finally grasp in his hand. He quickly swung the cane once more at Mr. Nobody’s head, this time hitting his temple, knocking him away towards the table and knocking it over, causing the utensils on its surface to scatter onto the ground and spilling the contents of the pot to the floor. Mr. Tophat quickly moved away from the fallen man and positioned himself between the man and the two girls. Mr. Nobody let out a growl as he rose once more.

“I’m getting tired of playing this game, Cochran.” He growled.

“Then why don’t you just do us all a favor and die already!” Tophat hissed back, causing Mr. Nobody to grew even angrier. He quickly snatched up The sound of footsteps reaching them caused Rachel to look away from the scene before her. The other members of the Midnight Society ran up to her with looks of relief to see her safe with Bartholomew, Horace, a few of the other employees of the carnival running up behind them. 

“Marcus!” Cassidy cried, causing Rachel to look back at the battle at hand, just in time to see Cassidy trying to catch her father as he landed just before them. Rachel ran up to help place him on the ground. Mr. Tophat nodded his thanks to the girls while continuing to glare back at Mr. Nobody, his left hand now hugging his right side, indicating an injury, though no blood was visible. 

As Mr. Nobody brought up his hand to attack, a hand grabbed onto his wrist, preventing him from moving. From out of nowhere, a ghostly woman appeared behind, looking him with emotionless dead eyes. Seeing her face, Rachel’s eye looked over to one of the figures that stood surrounding them, despite half of the face having been melted away, Rachel could see that the figure had the same exact face as the woman before them. Looking back, Rachel saw that more figures were beginning to appear, each one having a face matching that of figures around them. Each one grabbed onto a part of Mr. Nobody’s body, restraining him to the spot. 

“It’s them,” Cassidy whispered, “It's all of his old victims.” At the sound of her voice, the first ghost, the woman, looked straight at Cassidy, holding her gaze. After a moment, Cassidy spoke once more. “Anyone got a light?” Everyone looked at each other in confusion before Horace pulled a lighter from a pocket hidden in his clothing. Taking the lighter from him, Cassidy considered it for a moment. “How attached are you to this?” she asked, looking back at him. 

“Not very, I found it on the ground after one of the shows, no one ever came back for it, so I just kept it. Why?” He said with a shrug. 

“Because of this,” she replied and then in quick succession she lit the lighter and threw it straight at Mr. Nobody. The second it made contact with him, he lit up in flames and began to scream in pain. “Mind if I use this?” Cassidy’s voice asked now right next to her and her father, causing Rachel to look up to see that Cassidy had one hand loosely around her father’s cane. Receiving a small nod, Cassidy took the cane into her hands and walked up to the burning man, the ghosts still there to hold him in place. Taking in the man one last time, Cassidy swung up the cane and held it in the air. “Eli?” She said, causing him to pause in his screams and look up at her with a hateful glare. “Go to hell.” She then brought the cane as hard as she could and hit him straight in the head. The cane went right through the man and out the other side, scattering pieces of the head onto the ground beside them. Horrified by the events laying out before her, Rachel quickly hid her face in her father’s chest. Mr. Tophat’s arm tightened around her the moment she did, wishing to shield her from the horror. She could hear someone gasp from behind them.

“Its wax,” she then heard her father say. Looking up from his chest, she looked at him with confusion. His gaze was stuck on the sight before them. Mustering up the courage to look, Rachel looked back to the scene. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw exactly what he was talking about. Instead of red blood coming from the spot where his head should have been, a pale yellow liquid dripped from it instead. There was no argument about what it was. Eli Wickham had been made of wax. 

SAFE

Cassidy stood staring at the body before looking up at the figures before her. She shared a look with each of them before turning around and walking back to the group. She stopped beside Mr. Tophat and held out the cane.

“Thanks. Sorry about the wax, it should come off easily,” she said with a slight smile. Mr. Tophat grimaced and took the cane with a nod. Bartholomew appeared beside them and held out his hand to help his friend up. Giving the man a thankful smile, Mr. Tophat took hold of the hand and stood. The two men then hugged each other, still holding hands.

“Its good to have you back old friend,” Bartholomew said once they parted. 

“Its good to be back,” Mr. Tophat returned. He then turned back to Rachel and helped her up as well. He then pulled both her and Cassidy into a hug. “I’m so proud of you girls,” he whispered.

“Thanks, Dad,” Rachel said.

“Thanks, Marcus,” Cassidy said at the same time.

“As much as I am all for this sweet little reunion, can we do this somewhere less creepy?” Akiko asked from where she stood beside the other Midnight Society members. Mr.Tophat let out a small snort before nodding.

“Good idea,” he said, letting go of the girls before wrapping his arm over the shoulder of Bartholomew, leaning on him for support due to his still injured state. “Let’s get out of here.“

It turned out that Mr. Nobody’s lair was another pocket dimension that stood on the other side of one of the trees surrounding the Carnival of Doom. Once everyone was outside of the tree, the door on it swung shut and morphed back to regular bark.

“Think he’ll ever come back?” Louise asked, staring at the tree. Cassidy shook her head.

“I have a feeling that’s the last we’ll ever see of him or that place.,” Cassidy answered.

“Now what?” Rachel asked, looking up at her father.

“Now, we go back to the way it was before,” he answered with a frown.

“What?” Rachel asked in shock.

“The curse, I can still feel it in my veins,” he said. Cassidy frowned in confusion.

“But Rachel stopped you, she was the child who remembered!” She said as distress became evident in her voice.

“I don’t know why, but I know it’s still there,” Mr. tophat shrugged.

“There must be something we can do!” Rachel cried. Cassidy nodded before a look crossed her face.

“The original agreement,” she whispered. The other children furrowed their brows before Graham’s face lit up in realization.

“He never specified when the sunset had to be, did he?” He asked in excitement. Cassidy gave him an approving smile showing she had the same idea. Looks of realization all across the other members' faces one by one as they then understood what was going on.

“No, why?” Mr. Tophat frowned, not understanding what was happening out before him. Cassidy shared a mischievous look with Rachel before answering him.

“Tell me, Mr. Tophat, you up for one more show before the night’s over?” She asked with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! I hope this chapter wasn't too uncomfortable for anyone!   
> Also, for next week's update, I think I might actually post the last two chapters together. I'm not sure yet, I need to see how quickly I'm able to get both done. Until then, take care!


	12. The Final Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Tophat puts on one last show with the help of a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're so close to the end, folks! I almost can't contain my excitement!

Dr. Vink and Sardo arrived at the Carnival of Doom with uncertainty in their hearts. They knew something had happened in between the time of the Cassidy running off to the carnival to help deal with Mr. Nobody and them receiving a phone call from her hours later, urging them to come to the carnival quick. They were greeted at the entrance by the ticket-keeper clown, a mischievous and knowing smile sat on his face as he gave them both a “Hello”. As they walked through the carnival grounds, they pasted by other workers, each one grinning at them as they did. 

Above them, the announcement system came to life.

“With the night drawing to a close, we at the Carnival of Doom invite all of our patrons to join us for one last show inside of our main tent before we close,” Bartholomew’s voice said through the speaker. Sharing a look, the pair of men headed alongside the patrons towards the main tent and took their seats upon the bleachers set up inside. As soon as the last person took their seat, an organ began to play and a spotlight lit up the middle of the performance area. Standing proudly in the center was Mr. Tophat, a wide smile sat upon his lips.

“Welcome one and all. My name is Mr. Tophat, I’m the owner of this carnival. I apologize for not being here to greet you in the opening show, I had, unfortunately, been dealing with a troublemaker, but now I have returned to all of you!” He waved his hands in a half-circle towards the crowd. “And now, for our final act! For this last act, a dearly beloved friend of the carnival has volunteered to participate in it!” Another set of lights came on and drew the attention of all to the top of the tent, where a large glass box was raised high above the ground. Inside a person was looking down with terrified eyes.  
Dr. Vink and Sardo felt their hearts stop when they recognized the person inside.

“Cassidy,” Dr. Vink heard himself say in frozen fear. 

“Yes, Cassidy!” Mr. Tophat cheered, as though replying to Dr. Vink. “Dear Cassidy has been locked inside of that glass chamber. And when I say ‘go!’ she will have to find a way to escape the box and grab onto the rope above before that candle,” Mr. Tophat points his cane towards the right where another spotlight comes on to reveal a candlestick placed on a table directly underneath a secured rope with Tickettaker clown, Horace, behind it. He smiles as he pulls out a lighter and lights the candle. The rope within second began to smoke from the heat of the flame burning it. The voice of Mr. Tophat brings the audience’s attention back to him. “burns through the rope that is holding the bottom of the box in place. Once the rope is released, the bottom will open up and send Cassidy plummeting to the ground below!” He guides a path from the box to the ground immediately below, where set up boards hide the ground where she would fall onto. 

“She’s not going to make it!” Sardo urgently whispered to his companion, his hands clutching his right arm in a vice grip.

“Do not worry, people. Remember! No matter how scary this all may seem, It’s all part of the --“ Mr. Tophat’s speech is cut off at the bottom of the box falls open and Cassidy lets out a terrified scream as she falls until her scream is suddenly cut off when she undoubtedly hits the ground behind the boards.

“No!” Dr. Vink screams, leaping from his seat as he watched his daughter’s demise. The sound of the shout sent out a ripple in the air, passing through the people around him, rocking all who it hit, especially Mr. Tophat. The second he felt it hit him, he takes in a sharp breath and has to put out his hands to steady himself, before looking down at the top of his cane. There was a heavy silence in the air for a moment afterward before a pleased laugh comes out from behind the boards. The board facing the audience falls down to reveal a grinning and laughing Cassidy sitting up upon an inflated air cushion. She hops down from the cushion and holds her hands out at her sides, looking expectantly at the audience. After a beat, everyone stands up from the bleachers and begin clapping in delight and amazement at the trick. Cassidy takes a bow before waving over to Mr. Tophat, who then takes his bow as the audience clap.

“Thank you all for coming here tonight, we hope you all have a wonderful evening. Good night!” Mr. Tophat waves before he and Cassidy walk back to the curtains at the back of the tent and disappear behind them. Slowly, the patrons of the carnival begin to file their way out of the tent, though Dr. Vink and Sardo forgo the exit of the tent and head for the curtains instead, intent in talking to the other two.

It didn’t take long to find the other two, their voices were easy to follow and find them standing off with a group of the carnival employees and a familiar group of children. Mr. Tophat was excitedly spinning her around in a hug while the rest looked on with amusement in their faces.

“We did it!” he could be heard cheering as he spun her one last time before finally releasing the girl.

“And what exactly have you done?” Dr. Vink called out, watching in satisfaction as his unexpected question caused everyone in the group to jump. Cassidy shot her father a glare at the trick, but could not keep the excitement from her face.

“Didn’t you feel it, back in the tent? When you shouted in fear at the performance?” She excitedly asked, bouncing up and down in her place. “The curse! It’s gone!” 

“How can that be?” Sardo asked in confusion.

“Because, don’t you remember what father told Marcus all those years ago? If he scared him before the sun rises the next day, he wins!” Cassidy answered. Both Dr. Vink and Sardo frowned in even more confusion.

“But that was years ago, the agreement was only until the sunrise that next day,” Dr. Vink explained. Dr. Tophat shook his head.

“You never specified that it was,” he countered. Dr. Vink opened his mouth to argue back but then shut it as he turned the thought over in his head. Sardo looked over at his companion in disbelief.

“Did you actually?” he whispered. Dr. Vink slowly shook his head before he began to chuckle. Soon the chuckling became laughter and grew more and more until it reached a level that had all watching him wearing expressions of concern and unsettledness. Finally, the laughter died away, leaving the man bent over and holding his sides with both hands.

“I never specified a deadline! How brilliant! What a genius loophole, my dear Cassidy!” he cheered, moving over to his daughter to envelop her in a hug.

“Well, of course, do you expect any less of the daughter of the brilliant Dr. Vink?” Cassidy smirked.

“Of curse, nothing less of my daughter!” he agreed, squeezing her tightly.

“Now that that’s over, I think it’s high time we all went home. Because, I don’t know about you, but all of this excitement has tired me out,” Akiko butted in, looking around at the nodding heads of the other Midnight Society members as they voiced their agreements. With that, they all headed to the exit to finally end the eventful day and prepare for whatever life has to throw at them next.

One week later, Rachel and her mother found themselves standing on the porch of the finally settled in house of Cassidy and her family.

“Welcome! So happy you could join us!” Dr. Vink greeted as he opened his front door to let the pair inside. They were quickly guided to the living room, where the others and their families were at. Hannah greeted Gavin’s father and his father’s new girlfriend, Rosalyn, with joy, quickly falling into conversation with Rosalyn, Adam’s mother, and Graham’s aunt about anything that had since they had last talked. Hideo was talking with Louise’s older brother and Louise’s father about sports games. Rachel joined where her friends were sitting. 

“What about mummies?” Gavin offered.

“Too much toilet paper,” Akiko said back, waving her hand.

“Vampires?” Adam offered.

“Already suggested and shot down Adam,” Rachel said as she sat down. Gavin patted his back as the other boy frowned.

“Oh yeah,” he mumbled back.

“I got it! The hidebehind!” Graham excitedly said.

“The what?” Louise asked.

“Its this creature who no one can ever see! It hides behind everything, always just outside of your vision. The only hint you have of it being there is the strange sound it makes,” he explained, leaning in for a dramatic effect.

“Hmm. While that would be hard to make, it does sound interesting. I’ll put that on the ‘maybe’ list,” Akiko nodded. Graham smiled brightly and sat taller in his seat, proud of his achievement in helping his friend. Rachel couldn’t help but giggle a little at the sight. From the backdoor in the kitchen, she could hear Dr. Vink, Sardo, and Graham’s father arguing back and forth on who should be the one handling the grill. Cassidy stood at the kitchen counter watching through the window as the three men argued, before turning her head and catching Rachel’s eye. Both girls then began to laugh more in agreement over the ridiculousness of them. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Hannah Carpenter called out and headed for the door before anyone else could move or speak. Curious to see who else was apparently invited to the party, Rachel hopped up and follow her mother to the door. She arrived just in time for her mother to open the door and reveal the person who stood on the other side.

Standing on the porch of the Vinks’ residence was a smiling Mr. Tophat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next and final chapter coming right up.


	13. Happily Ever After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story comes to an end as this chapter of Rachel's life comes to its happy ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't have any idea what to say except, enjoy.

“Mr. Tophat?” Rachel said in shock. Her father’s smile grew wider that the moment he saw her. He no longer was wearing his usual carnival attire, instead, he now had on a white button-up shirt paired with a pair of black slacks underneath a pale green trench coat. The only item that he still had from his carnival attire was his gold cane, the amber top piece no longer glowed with unknown electricity now that the curse was broken. 

“Rachel! It’s good to see you again, my dear!” He greeted. He opened his arms wide in greeting. Rachel felt the urge to move into his arms and hug him but stopped herself from doing so when she remember it wasn’t just them there.

“Rachel? Do you know this man?” Hannah Carpenter asked, causing both of them to look at her. The moment Mr. Tophat realized who she was, the smile on his face fell as shock flickered in his eyes. He quickly caught himself and gave her a bright smile as well, though he corners didn’t quite reach his eyes as the other did for her. 

“Mr. Tophat at your service,” he quickly answered, bowing slightly in greeting. 

“Mr. Tophat?” Hannah repeated with a raised brow. He let out a small chuckle.

“Mr. tophat is my stage name. My real name is actually Marcus Cochran,” he explained with a smile. For a brief second, recognization flickered in her eyes at the sound of his name, but before she could say anything, Cassidy appeared behind them.

“Marcus, you guys made it!” She cheered, before leaning out of the entrance to look into the front yard. “You guys can just bring everything to the back, I’ll open up the gate to let you in.” she then called out. Rachel leaned quickly forward to see that she had been talking to a group of people parked in the driveway carrying benches and chairs in the direction of the backyard. Cassidy leaned back in, pulling Rachel back with her, and waved Marcus inside. “Come on in.” Marcus quickly followed suit and together, the four headed back towards the living area and kitchen. 

“So, how do you know Rachel?” Hannah asked as she moved to Mr. Tophat’s right.

“I run a carnival, your daughter and her friends have visited it a few times when we were nearby,” he explained with a nervous smile.

“He’s the one I told you about, the one who gave me his tophat,” Rachel quickly added. The moment she finished, Hannah gave him a surprised look before smiling brightly at him.

“So, you’re the one she told me about! I wanted to meet you the last time your group was here, but Rachel said you were away,” she explained excitedly. Mr. Tophat’s smile relaxed as he let out a held breath. They soon reached the kitchen and the three sat down on the stools at the counter while Cassidy walked off into the back to help with setting up.

“Yes, I had some business that needed tending to, so I, unfortunately, had to go away for a while,” Mr. Tophat said as he sat down on one. Rachel took the one next to him while her mother remained standing.

“I just realized that I still need to give you back your tophat, it's at my house, maybe my mom and I can run over real quick and get it for you,” Rachel said once she was seated. Her mother nodded in agreement, but before either could more, Mr. Tophat began to shake his head.

“You don’t need to do that. I’d rather you keep it, it suits you better than me,” he said with a smile. 

“It’s too big for me. I tried to wear it and it fell right over my eyes,” Rachel frowned, using her hands to mimic the brim of the hat as she pretended to put it on and the brim falling to her nose. Mr. Tophat immediately let out a laugh.

“Then I really want it to stay with you,” he said in-between the laughs, causing Hannah to laugh alongside him. Rachel frowned in mock anger before smiling and giggling as well.

“So, a carnival, huh? Sounds like fun,” her mother said, leaning forward to rest her arms on the counter.

“It is, I just love bringing people, especially children, fun and cheer. Though, my carnival focuses more on scaring people than anything else,” he explained, an eased smile appearing on his face as he talked. 

“That’s doesn’t have to be a bad thing, even a little bit of fear can be fun from time to time,” her mother replied with a soft smile. Mr. Tophat nodded his head.

“Couldn’t be truer,” he agreed, giving her a pleasant look. Hannah returned the look.

“Do you have a family, Marcus? Any children? Wife?” she asked, startling the man with the unexpected question. 

“Mom!” Rachel scolded. Her mother frowned at her with ‘What?’ look. Mr. Tophat waved Rachel off as he took a moment to collect himself. 

‘I-“ Mr. Tophat attempted to say after a moment, look down at his hands. “I don’t have a wife or children. As much as I would have loved to, I never found the chance to due to moving around so much,” he finally got out, a sadness appearing in his eyes as he said the last part. Hannah gave him a sympathetic look as she took hold of one of his hands and gave it a squeeze. The contact caused him to look up at her with startled eyes.

“Any woman would be lucky to have you as a husband and no doubt an excellent father as well. I can tell you are the type of man who cares about children dearly,” she consoled. Mr. Tophat gave her a small smile and squeeze her hand back.

“You don’ know how much you saying that means to me,” he whispered back. Hannah gave him a look of curiosity at the statement, but once more, before she could reply, someone else spoke up.

“Okay! You guys can come on out, foods about to be put on the grill!” Cassidy called out from the back door. The trio moved from their seats in the kitchen and, along with everyone else, headed outside to enjoy the food. 

In the backyard, tables and benches were set up to make one long table where everyone could sit together. Cassidy had already taken a seat next to one of the people from the crew who set it all up. In fact, all of the people from the crew were now seated and conversing between themselves. 

“Hey, Mr. Tophat?” Rachel turned to look over to the man as they stepped onto the grass. Once she knew she had his attention, she continued. “Who are those people that were in the driveway when you arrived?” Mr. Tophat blinked before smiling.

“You don’t recognize them? It some of the crew from the carnival, they’re just not wearing their costumes now,” he explained. Rachel blinked in surprise before turning back to study the people more closely. She quickly realized he was telling the truth. The young man with dark hair and woman with blonde hair who was seated across from Cassidy were the stilts clowns from the carnival, and the older woman next to them was a contortionist. The short man and large man were obviously the pair of clowns that had led the chase after Akiko and her friend the first night they went to the carnival. The only person she couldn’t figure out was the man Cassidy was sitting next to. As she walked closer, she noticed how he tilted his head at the sound of her footsteps and how the dark sunglasses he wore completely obscured his eyes. In his lap was a folded up walking stick. He tapped his fingers on Cassidy’s arm and tilted his head towards her, causing Cassidy to turn and see her.

“Rachel! Care to join us? I was just telling Horace about some of the stuff that’s happened since they were here,” Cassidy smiled. Rachel nodded and took a seat on the other side of her. She looked around at the group as Cassidy continued her conversation with the man, Horace as she now realized. The others gave her smiles and greetings as she looked at them one by one. Her attention was brought away from them as the other members of the Midnight Society soon joined them as took their seats beside the group. Graham, Louise, and Akiko sat across from her while Gavin and Adam sat down next to her.

“It's weird seeing you all without your makeup,” Gavin said as he nodded his greetings.

“Isn’t? Anyway, you guys know Horace,” Cassidy said, indicating the man beside her, who nodded to no one in particular. “With the magic over the carnival gone, the spell giving him back his eyesight is gone as well.” Cassidy quickly explained, quickly added as she looked back at him, “though I think there’s a spell I could use to help with that so you can continue being the ticket taker.”

“That would be nice, I would hate to lose my job now that everything’s back to normal,” Horace smiled back. Cassidy began to nod back but stopped herself as she realized there would be no point. She quickly turned back to the group.

“Those two are Jeremy and Bridgette, they’re twins,” she indicated the stilts clowns, who waved at the group. “They’re troublemakers, so beware. The much more responsible woman beside them is Lizzie, she’s their older sister.” The contortionist nodded and laughed as both Jeremy and Bridgette shot offended looks at the other girl. “Lastly, this is Oscar and Boris. Oscar is mute while Boris is deaf in his left ear, so they rely on one another while working and are inseparable.” Cassidy waved to the last two, Oscar being the large one while Boris was the smaller one. Both gave the children neutral looks before going back to what they were doing. Cassidy sighed and leaned closer to whisper to the children. “They’re also very shy about people, not everyone was kind to them before they joined the carnival, so don’t take it personally if they aren’t very open to you guys.” They all gave her frowns at the sad explanation and nodded. They then all leaned back into place as they all began to talk while waiting for their food.

“Hey, Rachel?” Akiko called over from where she sat. Rachel and Cassidy both turned to look over at her, curious what Akiko wanted.

“Yeah? What’s up,” Rachel answered back.

“You know how we had done some research to find out what we could about Mr. Nobody and we found all these stories about him?” She asked. Rachel frowned a little and nodded, growing more curious about what this could be about.

“Yeah?” She replied. 

“Well, we tried to find more about him afterward, but the thing was, all the stories gave different places of where he was from. One said New York, another Maine, and another said he was from Virginia! Each one was different. There was no real focal point in any of them besides his name being Eli Wickham. And even that was changed in some of them,” Louise started to explain.

“Ok. So, what are you trying to say?” Rachel asked in confusion.

“What We’re trying to say, is that Eli Wickham, Mr. Nobody, or whatever his name is, might just be as real as Slenderman or the boogieman,” Akiko said. The other children all looked at each other in confusion before looking back at the two girls.

“That’s impossible. We all saw him,” Gavin countered.

“Actually,” Cassidy finally said since the conversation began, “It is possible.” They all turned to face the young woman at her statement. She let out a sigh before explaining. “You remember what I said the first time we met, about how some stories if they’re told enough times, they can become real?” 

“Yeah, I remember you saying something like that,” Graham nodded. “But I don’t understand how that works.”

“Well,” she began, pausing in thought, “you know how there’s beliefs or sayings that people say that aren’t actually true? Like you shouldn’t eat anything just before swimming or that sugar makes children hyper?”

“Or like Darth Vader saying ‘Luke, I am your father!’, when he actually said ‘No, I am your father’?” Adam suggested, causing Cassidy to laugh and nod. 

“Yeah! Well, stories can be like that too. If a story is told over and over enough times, it can begin to take on a life of its own, and eventually, it can become as real as you and me,” her voice became almost a whisper as she said the last sentence. 

“How do you know that, have you seen it happen before?” Graham frowned. Cassidy let out a small laugh before looking away, the children all followed her gaze to see that she was looking towards where her father and her uncle were standing beside the grill. Looking back to the others, she finally answered.

“Because that’s how my father and uncle came to be,” she said. They all froze at the revelation.

“What?” Akiko gasped.

“Father and Uncle Sardo were once characters in stories told by another Midnight Society some time back in the ’90s. The children kept on including them in different stories, giving them each a life of their own. Eventually, one day, they woke up in our world, having become as real as you and me,” Cassidy explained.

“Wait, the 90’s? As in the 1990s?” Rachel asked. Cassidy nodded. “But your dad cursed my dad back in the ’40s, how can that be possible?” Cassidy shrugged in response.

“Who knows? Life and magic are strange, being able to shape the world around things, creating a history that once upon a time, never existed in the first place. One can never truly understand life’s mysteries, even ones as unique as you and me, we can only work our ways around them,” Cassidy gave a smile, letting out a laugh at the expressions each child gave her as they tried to make sense of it all. Just then, Mr. Tophat appeared holding a plate of food for both Rachel and him.

“Here you go sweetheart,” he said as he handed her the food. Rachel gave him a bright smile in return.

“Thanks,” she said back with a bright smile of her own, quietly adding in a hushed voice, “Dad.” Love and pride appeared in his eyes at the sound of the name. Just as he moved to sit down between her and Cassidy, a loud gasp rang out in the yard, causing everyone to turn and look at the source. Standing frozen at the end of the table with her food having fallen from her hands was Hannah Carpenter. Her eyes filled with tears as she stared directly at Mr. Tophat.

“Marcus,” she gasped. Mr. Tophat frowned at her and opened his mouth, but before he could speak, she continued. “It’s you!” she cried. Understanding filled his eyes as he handed off his plate to Cassidy and quickly rushed over to the woman. She threw her arms around him as she began to cry. “It’s you, I remember!”

“Hannah,” he softly back with a tearful smile. 

“They had us move, there had been a problem with the group I had joined and they made us move before you could get there. I’m so sorry!” she cried. Mr. Tophat held her tightly, petting her hair. He slowly lowered the two of them to the ground into a more comfortable position.

“It’s ok, it's not your fault. You couldn’t have known,” he hushed as she continued her apologizes. Around them, no one knew what to do as they watched the scene before them. Rachel felt a tap on her shoulder, causing her to look back to see Cassidy gesturing her to go to the two. With a small nod, Rachel stood and moved over to her parents. Mr. Tophat looked over at her with a sad smile and lifted one arm to let her into the embrace. Noticing her daughter now there, Hannah Carpenter began to cry even more.

“Oh, Rachel, I’m so sorry. If it wasn’t for me, you would have still had your father there with you,” she apologized, wrapping her arm around the girl as well. Rachel shook her head and leaned her head against her mother’s shoulder.

“It’s not your fault. I didn’t remember either, neither of us did,” Rachel assured. “But it’s ok now, we’re together now, just as we were before.” Her parents both nodded and tightens their embrace. 

“We’re together now,” Mr. Tophat repeated in a whisper. Hannah raised her head to look at him and slowly moved her arms so her hands were cupping each of his cheeks. She looked at him for a moment before leaning forward as placing a soft kiss on his lips. Both her and his eyes slid closed as they held the kiss for a moment and Mr. Tophat’s hands to hold her cheek as well. Finally, they parted and opened their eyes. They stared silently at each other before smiling and let out small laughs, leaning their foreheads together.

“I missed you,” Hannah whispered.

“I missed you, too,” Mr. Tophat whispered back. Slowly, they parted and began to rise, guiding their daughter up along with them. It was then that they remembered their audience. Hannah turned her head to look over at the other people before hiding her face in her lover’s shoulder. Mr. Tophat let out a small chuckle before looking out to everyone. 

“I think it’s high time I introduced myself. Hello everyone, my name is Marcus Cochran. I’m Rachel’s father,” he explained as he wrapped his arm around both Rachel and her mother. “It’s a long story, so why don’t we enjoy our food and we’ll explain everything later on.” He then began to guide their little trio to where Rachel had been sitting, pausing in his step and quickly added, “later on, someday.” Gavin’s father and some of the others let out small laughter at the last part as Mr. Tophat continued his walk over to their seats.

“My food, I need to get a new plate,” Hannah mumbled from where she still had her face placed on his shoulder. Mr. Tophat smiled and patted her shoulder.

“That’s alright, you can have some of my and Rachel’s food,” he whispered back, looking down at Rachel from the corner of his eye. Rachel quickly nodded her head in agreement.

“Yeah! Dad put too much on mine anyway, I would never be able to finish it all,” she said with a smile as she took her seat. Both let out a laugh at the statement. 

“So, what was it you lot talking about that made you all make those faces earlier?” He asked once they were seated. Cassidy and Rachel both laughed.

“I’ll tell you later,” Cassidy promised, knowing that they had enough confusion for the time being.

“Killer books!” Graham exclaimed, popping up from his seat, scaring everyone and making them jump in their seats.

“What?” Louise asked with a confused frown.

“Killer books! That can be what you use for your new movie!” He turned to look at Akiko. She stared at him for a moment.

“Next,” she simply said, turning to face the others, ignoring the crestfallen look on Graham’s face. Louise patted his back sympathetically as he sat back down. They all looked around, trying to think of ideas.

“Zombie clowns?” Adam offered, looking over at where the twins were sitting. Akiko shook her head.

“No, just I did zombies. Though clowns might work,” Akiko replied, causing Adam to grin a little at the second statement.

“I’m confused, what’s going on?” Tophat walked over and leaned down to whisper to Rachel. From his shoulder, Hannah nodded in agreement.

“We’re trying to help Akiko think of a new idea for her horror films,” Rachel whispered back. Her father nodded and thought to himself. His gaze trailed around until it fell on Cassidy. A wicked smirk appeared on his face.

“Spider-people?” He wondered out loud. Cassidy shot him a glare.

“No,” she warned. 

“Spider-people?” Graham asked back at the same time.

“No!” Cassidy repeated, looking more alarmed. 

“Yeah, you know, head and torso of a human, body, and legs of a spider,” Tophat began to grin wider.

“We’re not doing this,” Cassidy said, her voice began higher. Hannah let out a small laugh at the sight of the distressed girl. Mr. Tophat smiled back down at her and placed a kiss at the top of her head, causing her to smile a little wider.

“Spider-people?” Akiko asked, though more to herself than anyone else.

“Akiko, no!” Cassidy pleaded. Her pleads seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“I like it,” Akiko smiled. She quickly pulled out her phone and began typing away on it, obviously already planning and thinking about what they can do for the film. Cassidy groaned and let her head fall onto the table and wrapped her arms around it. The Carnival crew all let out a laugh at her unhappiness.

“What’s with her?” Rachel finally asked. Cassidy’s muffled voice came out from under her arms. “What?” Cassidy raised her head to look at Rachel.

“If there’s one fear I never grew out of, its giant bugs,” she answered in a deadpanned voice.

“Actually, spiders aren’t bugs, they’re arachnids,” Graham said. Cassidy shot him a glare, caused him to shrink back and turn away to Akiko and Louise as they muttered on about their plans for the film.

“Whatever. I just hate giant bugs or arachnids. They give me the creeps,” Cassidy shuddered.

“Cassidy also didn’t have the best experience when it came to spider people,” Dr. Vink added, walking over to where they were all sitting. Akiko and Louise both paused in their chat and turned to face the mad scientist.

“Don’t,” Cassidy groaned, obviously not interested in this conversation.

“What do you mean she didn’t have the best experience?” Akiko slowly asked.

“They may have tried to feed her to their young,” Sardo answered from when he sat at the end of the table.

“Uncle!” Cassidy cried at his betrayal. Sardo gave her an apologetic shrug before turning back to his food.

“What?” Graham asked, his voice cracking in fear. They all turned to face Cassidy, who gave her father and uncle each a glare before sighing.

“I’m getting out of this that easily, am I?” she asked. Everyone shook their heads in unison. With another sigh, she sat up. “Fine. Ok. You know how there’s all these different spiders ranging in size? Some that are as tiny as the head of a needle and some that are as big as the palm of your hands? Well, what no one tells you is that those guys are just the babies. There are spiders much, and I mean much, bigger than that. In fact, they’re not only the size of adult humans, but they have features like them too.” She paused as she looked at the enamored faces of the people around her before smiling and continuing. “For the approval of you all, I give you the tale of the Spider Queen’s Kingdom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After 3 months and 30,783 words, I finally bring this story to a close. While this series is technically complete, I might have a small story or two to tell involving this world. Maybe one with an appearance by a certain cigar smoking clown, I'm not sure yet. If I don't, then I hope you all enjoyed this story and have a wonderful day. Thank you to everyone who has read this story and the few of you who gave me a review. Take care.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I plan to post the next chapter next week, so stay tuned until then.  
> If you enjoyed this chapter, perhaps consider leaving a kudos or comment. It's your love and appreciation that keeps me motivate to write my stories.


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